The Clemson basketball team experienced a whirlwind of unfortunate circumstance in the waning moments of their game at Duke on Saturday.
In the wake of the Tigers’ 72-71 defeat, an upset bid that fell one second short of fruition, Clemson was left feeling as if the final outcome had been taken out of their hands. The anger and emotion during the immediate aftermath and postgame press conferences was palpable, but depending on which side of the score you were on, opinions differed about whether Clemson had the game taken from them, or if they were the ones who gave it away.
The reality is, it was a bit of both.
The Tigers rallied from a 32-20 deficit late in the first half and went into the locker room trailing 32-26. Clemson continued to chisel away at the Blue Devils’ lead throughout the second half before finally pulling even at 59-59 with 5:54 remaining in the game. The Tigers then pulled in front, holding a slim lead for much of the final five minutes.
Then, leading 71-70 with 7.4 seconds on the clock, Duke was the beneficiary of the final, contemptuous call that put the Blue Devils’ Tyrese Proctor on the line with exactly one second on the clock. Proctor cooly sank both shots, and Clemson’s full-court hail Mary went for naught, leaving Tigers players and coaches incensed and in pursuit of the officiating crew that was hastily exiting the Cameron Indoor Arena court.
It was the final line in the story of the night. A game in which Clemson big man P.J. Hall was constantly mauled by Duke defenders with precious few whistles going the Tigers’ way, then a multiple of infractions called on the other end of the floor when the Blue Devils had the ball. Clemson head coach Brad Brownell was unable to hide his anger following the game when he met with the media.
“It’s hard for me, guys, not going to lie to you,” said Brownell. “I’m angry. I’m trying to watch what I’m saying a little bit. But felt like the game was taken away from us a little bit at the end.”
Brad Brownell
On the final play in question, Proctor was trying to get to the rim against Clemson’s Josh Beadle. Proctor appeared to travel, then extended his elbow in what seemed to be a push-off, but instead the whistle blew against Beadle and sent Proctor to the charity stripe. It was the final indignation that erased what had been a spirited comeback by Clemson and put them in position to spring a monumental ACC upset.
But not all of the blame can be placed on the officiating.
Down the stretch in the final two minutes, the Tigers possessed the ball four times with the lead. On three of those possessions, Clemson turned the ball over and came away empty, a fact Brownell also acknowledged.
“We had chances,” he said. “There were a couple opportunities for us to finish the game better on offense and had a couple of turnovers. I’m just so proud of our team and our players for how they competed. Obviously, we had a couple whistles down the stretch that were a little perplexing is all I can say. It’s really frustrating.”
Brad Brownell
In a rocky first half, Clemson was plagued by many of the same shooting woes that have doomed them in recent weeks. The Tigers hit just two three pointers in the first 20 minutes, and during the opening half, big man Ian Schieffelin was held scoreless and sharpshooter Joe Girard scored a single basket.
It was Girard and senior P.J. Hall that helped bring Clemson back in the second half. Girard caught fire, knocking down two from long range and scoring 11 of his 13 in the final 20 minutes. Hall, steady as always, finished with a team-high 19 and 10 rebounds. Chase Hunter had a solid game, scoring 11.
Duke got huge second halves from Jared McClain and Proctor. McClain finished with a game-high 21 points and single-handedly carried Duke through the first 10 minutes of the second half. Proctor, in addition to his game-winning free throws, added 18 points. Blue Devils’ center Kyle Filipowski added nine points but made only two shots from the field and was 5-11 from the free throw line which had helped facilitate the Tigers’ comeback.
Clemson dominated most of the stat columns, too. The Tigers made more baskets (23-21), outrebounded Duke (42-33), had more points in the paint (26-22), and had 15 second chance points to zero for the Blue Devils. One category where Duke did come out on top was free throw attempts.
The Blue Devils took 33 shots from the line. Clemson attempted 22. Duke shot from the line on seven of their final 12 possessions of the game.
The contentious outcome was viewed differently by Duke head coach Jon Scheyer who naturally felt his team was denied favor from the officials despite the vast array of visual evidence to the contrary.
“I can go through the whole game and go through the plays of (Clemson) pushing us in the back, or blocking out, or I could down the whole game,” countered Scheyer. “I’m not going to go through every game that we play, and the officials after the game, what they called and what they didn’t call. I’m proud of my team for finding a way to win.”
Brownell is of a different opinion. Saturday night was just another close but so far away game in a venue that has been torturous for the Tigers. For Clemson, it is their 30th consecutive loss at Cameron Indoor Arena, but this was the closest they have been during the last three decades.
“I’ve been here (Cameron Indoor) in this same situation about four times,” he added. “Within a possession and I haven’t won one yet. We got to one second. Had it taken from us. It’s hard to win here. I’m really disappointed with how it ended.”
