Holding a five-point lead with just over a minute left to play in regulation, the 16th-ranked Clemson basketball team seemed in command, on their way to a seventh straight victory. A feisty Memphis team (now 8-2) had different ideas.
Following Chase Hunter’s three, Memphis answered back with a triple from emerging guard Colby Rogers (who finished with a season-high 22 points), and a layup by center Dain Dainja after forcing a turnover.
Chase Hunter’s stepback three pointer was off, and the contest headed for overtime. Despite the teams trading baskets in the early going of the extra period, Penny Hardaway’s team was just too much for Clemson.
“I hit that three [at the end of regulation] and then came down, celebrated too much, and should have been more focused,” Chase Hunter said after the loss. “I think that those last few plays are on me. I’ve got to be better as a senior leader and make sure that we can finish.”
Despite holding one of the nation’s top scorers, PJ Haggerty, to just 12 points, Memphis got x-factor performances from Rogers and Tyrese Hunter (23 points) to edge Clemson inside Littlejohn Coliseum.
One of the bright spots in the loss for CU was big man Viktor Lakhin. The senior from Anapa, Russia finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds, and helped stretch the Memphis defense out to the three-point arc, knocking down two triples. Senior transfer guard Jaeden Zackery added 11 points, including a trio of three-pointers in crucial moments.
“They really tried to top-lock Chase and take some of Chase’s things away,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “That was some of the things that they gave up. And obviously, Jaeden’s a very good shooter, so we’re happy to see him [make] three out of four today.”
“Top-locking”, as Brownell described, is a tactic where a defender places himself in the path of the screen. This usually forces the player who’d be receiving the screen to change his path, causing chaos in the play.
Next up for Brownell’s team: an energized South Carolina squad that might be better than their 6-3 record. Saturday’s loss is nothing for Tiger fans to be ashamed of, and winning on Tuesday against the Gamecocks could be a great opportunity for the team to get back on track heading into ACC play.
“[South Carolina’s] a big game, obviously, for a lot of reasons,” Brownell said. “It’s the next game. It’s a rivalry game. They’re a good team. It’s on the road. I just told my team that. We’re gonna find out what we’re made of. This was a locker room [that] wasn’t very good right now, as you would expect, there’s a lot of guys that feel bad. Now, somehow you’ve got to rally the troops. It’s a little bit different than the Miami game, but that’s what happens in basketball.”
Memphis held senior big man Ian Schieffelin to a season-low 6 rebounds in the contest, utilizing Dainja to guard him as well as senior Moussa Cisse, who fouled out with 3:39 remaining.
“I’ve been watching Clemson [and Coach Brownell] a long time, even before I started coaching,” Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway said after the game. “He’s always had bigs that are going to go rebound the basketball…Last year, playing against PJ [Hall] and Ian, those were the two hardest bigs we ever played against…If we hadn’t played them last year, there’s no way you can just see it…We had a full week to prepare for this game…But to know him and what he brings on a nightly basis with his energy, if you don’t match his energy, this is what we’re telling [our] bigs, he’s gonna destroy you.”
