Clemson falls in OT again to fall second straight to the Gamecocks in Columbia

On By Littum

For the second time in four days, the Clemson men’s basketball team went to overtime. Chase Hunter‘s bankshot gave the Tigers no. 25 life at Colonial Life Arena against the rival Gamecocks, and five extra minutes of hoops were needed again.

Against Memphis, the Tigers ran out of gas in overtime and suffered their second loss of the season.

The result in Columbia told a similar story.

Christian Reeves had an opportunity at the line to tie things up, hitting 1-of-2 instead at the charity stripe. The Gamecocks (8-3) held off the Tigers (9-3) in overtime, 91-88.

Despite Hunter’s heroics at the buzzer, South Carolina was able to do enough to fend off several Clemson rallies.

The lead changed hands just four times as the Tigers led several rallies to cut the Gamecocks’ lead to one or two possessions. In those cases, a mistake or two on Clemson’s end would set their efforts back in another hunt.

Some of those efforts came on the Gamecocks’ advantage on the glass, holding a 35-28 lead over Clemson on the glass. South Carolina also tallied 11 offensive rebounds and got 13 second-chance points.

Much like how another overtime score told a similar story in Columbia, so did Clemson’s first-half start.

Against the Memphis defense, it took Brad Brownell‘s offense nearly six minutes to get used to the intensity of Penny Hardaway’s defense, and to register their first basket.

Taking a page out of Hardaway’s book, the Gamecocks stifled the Tiger offense in the first half, holding them to 31 percent shooting from the field in the first 20 minutes.

Those first-half struggles were headlined by Hunter, who collected zero points in the opening action.

When he came out of the locker room, his game held something else in store.

Hunter dropped 27 in the second half and overtime when he and Ian Schieffelin led the Tiger offense and combined for 50 points in Columbia.

Schieffelin ended up fouling with 3:49 left to play in the second half, having been involved in a fight with Collin Murray-Boyles, who also fouled out in the extended action.

That assortment of fouls led to plenty of trips to the foul line for both groups as both programs combined for 55 shots at the charity stripe, with the Gamecocks leading the way with 34 to Clemson’s 21.

Despite the loss, the Tigers found another contributor off the bench to put together valuable minutes that only served to stretch Clemson’s depth.

Jake Heidbreder totaled a season-high 10 points on 3-5 shooting, recording a season-high 26 minutes. His perfect shooting in the first half gave the Tigers enough to stay within eight points heading into the locker room.

Clemson travels home to face Wake Forest on Dec. 21 at 2 p.m. on ESPN hoping to avoid three straight losses.