Conference clunker: No. 18 Clemson basketball drops ACC home game to NC State
Clemson men’s basketball has been riding high for over a month.
On Tuesday, the Tigers came back to down to earth a little.
No. 18 Clemson dropped its first ACC game of the season 80-76 in overtime to NC State at Littlejohn Coliseum. The loss snapped a nine-game Clemson win streak dating back to Dec. 13, as well as a 14-game home winning streak.
Star Wolfpack forward Darrion Williams made a 3-pointer with NC State trailing 72-71 in OT then had a slick pass to teammate Ven-Allen Lubin for a dunk on the next possession to put the Wolfpack up 76-72 with 1:11 remaining.
Clemson went 1-2 on free throws on its next two possessions after going down four points and never had the ball within a possession in the final 90 seconds.
The Tigers dropped to 16-4 and 6-1 in the ACC with the loss, which also booted them out of a tie with No. 5 Duke for first place in the conference. It’s a Quad 2 loss for Clemson, which isn’t ideal but also not extremely damaging for the NCAA Tournament résumé of a team that entered Tuesday as a projected No. 5 seed.
Meanwhile, Clemson alum and former Tigers student manager Will Wade got a big ranked road win for NC State, which improved to 13-6 and 4-2 in the ACC.
“Hard-fought game. I didn’t think we played up to the standards that we need to play to win,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said postgame. “... NC State’s playing well, and tonight they just beat us.”
Clemson vs. NC State game recap
Clemson entered Tuesday’s game sporting a 10-0 home record, but the Tigers got off to a rough start in front of a sellout crowd of 9,000 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
An early hot shooting streak devolved into a sloppy run of missed shots and live-ball turnovers and put Clemson in an 11-point hole midway through the period.
The Tigers closed on a mini-run and trailed 38-33 at halftime.
Brownell agreed with a reporter’s assessment that NC State, coming off a bad home loss to Georgia Tech, wanted it more than Clemson, especially early on.
“I kind of felt it a little bit this morning in our shootaround,” Brownell said.
NC State led by at least two points and one possession (but no more than seven points and three possessions) during a back-and-forth second half.
Clemson whiffed on multiple chances to tie or take the lead late in the second half before forward RJ Godfrey’s late basket with 1:12 let gave the Tigers their first lead since the mid-first half (69-67).
NC State’s Williams (17 points, six rebounds, three assists, zero turnovers) responded with two free throws to tie the game 69-69 with one minute left.
But neither team could get a game-winner to fall, with Clemson guard Dillon Hunter and Williams both missing good looks in the final minute. Hunter also missed a deep, running 3-pointer at the buzzer, which sent the game to overtime.
NC State outscored Clemson 11-7 in the extra period. The Tigers, already playing a little flat to end regulation, shot 1-6 (excluding a meaningless shot at the buzzer while down six points), 0-3 on threes and 3-6 on free throws in overtime.
The Wolfpack significantly outpaced Clemson in free-throw shooting and points off turnovers, two stats that made the difference in a two-possession game. NC State was 22-25 (88%) on free throws, and Clemson was just 15-24 (62.5%).
The Tigers also coughed up 13 turnovers (one off their season high) and were outscored 19-6 in points off turnovers by the Wolfpack.
Godfrey: Loss can be wake-up call for Tigers
NC State and Wade earned their first Quad 1 win. It was also Wade’s second win in a row vs. Clemson; his No. 12-seeded McNeese State team also upset No. 5 Clemson and Brownell in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
“Hopefully this gives us some pop,” said Wade, who worked for Larry Shyatt and Oliver Purnell’s Clemson teams as a grad assistant and student manager and hit up his favorite local burger joint, Mac’s Drive-In, for pregame lunch Tuesday.
Godfrey, who scored a team-high 16 points, said the loss can serve as a wake-up call for the Tigers, a tough team that reached its highest AP poll ranking of the year Monday but didn’t play like that vs. unranked NC State.
“We’ve gotta be the ones to set the tone,” Godfrey said.
Next four Clemson MBB games
- Saturday, Jan. 24: at Georgia Tech, noon (ACCN)
- Saturday, Jan. 31: vs. Pitt, noon (ACCN)
- Wednesday, Feb. 4: at Stanford, 10 p.m. (ACCN)
- Saturday, Feb. 7: at Cal, 8 p.m. (ACCN)
This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 9:27 PM.
