So close: Clemson men’s basketball drops tight game at No. 12 Alabama
Clemson men’s basketball remains competitive, but it still has work to do.
The Tigers dropped their first game against a ranked opponent this season, losing 90-84 to No. 12 Alabama on Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa and falling to 7-2. The non-conference game was part of the annual ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge.
Clemson trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half before erasing that deficit and tying the game at 54-54 with 12 minutes remaining. The Tigers went up 83-81 on forward R.J. Godfrey’s and-one layup with 2:41 remaining.
But Alabama guard Labaron Philon Jr. responded with an and-one layup (84-83) and then hit another tough bucket for an 86-83 lead after Godfrey — who’d shot 7-7 on free throws to that point — missed both attempts on a trip to the line with 2:19 left.
The Crimson Tide made it a 7-0 run after a poor Clemson possession ended with a deep 3-point attempt from guard Butta Johnson and Alabama scored to go up 88-83 on the other end, which was immediately followed by a Clemson missed layup.
Coach Brad Brownell’s team only made one of its last nine field-goal attempts, missed its last seven shots and did not make a single field goal after Godfrey’s aforementioned and-one with about three minutes to go.
“I thought our guys were a little bit on their heels,” Brownell said postgame. “I don’t really know why. I don’t know if we were nervous, anxious. We knew this would be a hard game. We knew it would be a tough environment.”
Godfrey finished with a team-high 19 points on 6-10 shooting, and true freshman guard Zac Foster looked like he belonged with 12 points (albeit on 17 shots). Clemson also got strong games from forward Nick Davidson (zero first-half points and 11 second-half points) and forward Jake Wahlin (team-best +12 plus/minus).
Brownell credited Godfrey, a Georgia transfer who returned to Clemson this offseason, for playing with “tremendous heart, energy and physicality.” He said that’s something the rest of the team lacked in the first half.
“I thought we were soft,” Brownell said.
Clemson scored 30 first-half points and nearly doubled that with 54 in the second.
It wasn’t enough against a dynamic Alabama team that was missing starting guard Aden Holloway but got a huge game from Philon (game-high 29 points in 33 minutes) and freshman forward Amari Allen (20 points, 11 rebounds).
Bama forward Aiden Sherrell was also a defensive menace with eight blocked shots, the most by a Clemson opponent in a single game in 18 years.
After the Crimson Tide went up 19 points with 4:39 to go in the first half, though, Clemson steadily chipped away at its deficit and used a big second-half scoring run (24-9 in the first eight minutes) to tighten the game down the stretch.
But Alabama (6-2) outscored Clemson 7-1 over the final 2:41 to secure a win.
“The game was winnable,” Brownell said. “... We just didn’t finish.”
Will Alabama loss impact Clemson’s NCAA chances?
The Alabama game was a Quadrant 1 win opportunity for coach Brad Brownell and the Tigers in the NCAA NET rankings.
But Clemson, coming off big wins against West Virginia and Georgia to win the 2025 Charleston Classic mid-season tournament, dropped to 1-1 in Quad 1 games and 0-2 in true road games. The Tigers also lost at Georgetown on Nov. 15.
In Thursday’s updated NET rankings, Clemson dropped one spot from No. 27 to No. 28 factoring in the Alabama loss. That confirmed the obvious: A close a road loss against an AP Top 15 team isn’t going to sink any NCAA Tournament hopes.
But it makes upcoming games against No. 9 BYU in New York City, South Carolina at home and Cincinnati in Greenville (neutral site) more interesting for Clemson. BYU is a Quad 1 opponent, while rival USC and Cincy currently rank as Quad 3 teams.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Clemson as a No. 8 seed in his most recent projections.
Next four Clemson MBB games
- Dec. 9: vs. No. 9 BYU in New York City, 6:30 p.m. (ESPN)
- Dec. 13: vs. Mercer, 3 p.m. (ACCNX)
- Dec. 16: vs. South Carolina, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
- Dec. 21: vs. Cincinnati in Greenville, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published December 3, 2025 at 9:44 PM.
