On Wednesday night, the No. 21 Clemson Tigers (11-4, 1-3 ACC) fell to the Virginia Tech Hokies (10-5, 2-2 ACC) at the Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Virginia.
The guard play by Virginia Tech’s Sean Pedulla and Tyler Nickel proved to be the difference-making in Clemson’s third straight loss of the season, scoring 56 of the Hokies’ 87 in the victory while the team shot 53.3% from three-point range.
An 8-0 Virginia Tech run in two minutes in the first half gave the Hokies an early lead. That’s all it took for the home team to gain control over their conference foe, leading by nine points going into halftime after scoring 53 points in the first frame. The Tigers were hoping to come into the second half with more momentum after forward Chauncey Wiggins sank a three-pointer as time expired.
The Tigers did not give up, however, cutting Virginia Tech’s lead to four points. Despite the comeback, Pedulla and Nickel brought the lead back, leading by a game-high 15 points when the final buzzer struck. The Clemson offense was unable to execute towards the end, not scoring a field goal in the final three minutes of the game.
Despite the loss, four Clemson players scored double digits, proving that head coach Brad Brownell has plenty of weapons to grant him success despite the loss. Leading the scoring was forward Ian Schieffelin, who scored 15 points in the contest and added eight rebounds on the glass. Wiggins and Joe Girard III added 12 points each.
Clemson’s third straight loss is the longest losing streak for the Tigers this season, while also getting their third straight loss in conference play. After an ideal start last season, Brownell and his squad will need a strong finish to end the season if they want a shot of earning a top seed in the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament.
However, the three straight losses for Clemson are all coming from Quad 1 losses, meaning that the losses experienced last season compared to this season do not hurt the Tigers’ chances of a future tournament run.
Next up for Clemson, they will travel back to Littlejohn Coliseum to host the Boston College Eagles on Saturday afternoon with hopes to snap their three-game skid.
