Out of gas: Clemson basketball drops ACC Tournament semifinal game to Duke
After its best ACC Tournament showing in 16 years, the Clemson men’s basketball team ran out of gas against a more talented team Friday.
Duke handled the Tigers 73-61 in an ACC semifinal game at Spectrum Center to advance to Saturday’s championship game against Virginia.
A brutal stretch of missed shots to end the first half sunk the No. 5 seed Tigers, who made a modest second-half rally but didn’t have enough firepower to take down Jon Scheyer’s Duke team, the No. 1 seed and regular-season conference champion.
It was still a productive week for coach Brad Brownell and the Tigers, who won two games at a single ACC Tournament for the first time since 2008 and earned a big Quadrant 1 win over UNC to boost their NCAA Tournament résumé.
But after hanging with Duke early, Clemson once again looked a little outmatched against one of the nation’s elite teams (which played without regular starting point guard Caleb Foster and center Patrick Ngongba II because of injuries).
“They’ve had an outstanding year,” Brownell said postgame. “Tough to beat.”
Duke (31-2) will go for a second straight ACC Tournament title Saturday night against No. 2 Virginia, which beat No. 3 Miami in a semifinal earlier Friday.
Clemson (24-10) will learn its NCAA Tournament placement in Sunday’s selection show after falling short of its ultimate goal once again.
Despite being a charter member of the ACC and participating in all 72 of the league’s conference tournaments to date, the Tigers have never won an ACC tournament championship. They’re the only founding member not to win at least one title.
Clemson also fell to 2-14 in ACC semifinal games and 0-21 against ACC tournament No. 1 seeds. Brownell dropped to 0-5 in ACC tournament semifinals.
“Obviously I want to win an ACC Tournament, and we haven’t been able to do that,” Brownell said. “Certainly, it’s a point of frustration. But it’s a heck of a challenge, too. There’s 18 teams trying to do it. We’ll keep grinding away.”
Game recap
Friday marked Clemson’s third game in three days at the ACC Tournament after beating No. 13 Wake Forest and No. 4 UNC on back-to-back nights to advance.
Fatigue wasn’t an issue earlier this week at Spectrum Center, but it showed against Duke. After competing with the Blue Devils early in a first half that featured four ties and seven lead changes, the Tigers faded down the stretch and worked themselves into a 19-point halftime hole.
After Clemson forward RJ Godfrey made a layup to cut Duke’s lead to 19-18, Duke outscored the Tigers 22-4 over the remaining 7:34 of the first half.
Ice-cold Clemson finished the half missing its last 10 shot attempts and 14 of its last 15 shot attempts and trailed 41-22 at the break.
Godfrey was on the bench for much of that lopsided Duke run, which Brownell said was “bad coaching” on his part (Godfrey did have two fouls at that point).
“The guys just collectively made really good decisions on offense and were really consistent on the defensive end,” Scheyer said of that game-altering run.
A fresher Clemson team came out of the locker room and made some shots. With 7:48 to go in the game, the Tigers were outscoring Duke 24-19 in the period and shooting a solid 47%.
The only issue: When you get down 19 points against a team as good as Duke, there’s essentially zero margin for error. The Blue Devils twice responded with big buckets after Clemson cut its lead to 12 points under the 10-minute mark.
Duke went up 18 points, 68-50, with 3:38 remaining in the game. Clemson brought out a late full-court press after cutting its deficit to 10 points with 38.7 seconds left, but Duke broke the press and scored a final tip-in basket to secure a win.
Blue Devils freshman phenom Cameron Boozer had 24 points, 14 rebounds and five assists, and Duke also got great games from guard Cayden Boozer (season-high 16 points) and bench forward Nik Khamenia (season-high tying 16).
Godfrey led Clemson with 18 points. Brownell said that despite Friday’s loss, the Tigers have had “a hell of a year” and will make sure the players remember that Sunday before quickly pivoting to March Madness preparation.
“I’m proud of my team,” Brownell said. “I’m proud of them not just for the two games this week. I’m proud of them for the season we’ve had.”
How to watch 2026 NCAA men’s selection show
- What: 2026 NCAA men’s tournament bracket reveal
- When: 6 p.m. Sunday
- TV: CBS
- Stream: via cbs.com
This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 11:42 PM.
