It was a tale of two halves for the Clemson basketball team tonight.
On the first chilly night of the fall, the Tigers’ first half matched the weather. After the teams traded buckets in the first seven minutes, Georgetown’s Jaland Low drilled a 3 to give the Hoyas a 17-14 lead with 13:42 left in the half. Clemson wouldn’t score again until a David Fuchs hook shot with 9:09 remaining made it 30-16. Not only did Clemson go ice cold on offense, but the defense also looked disinterested at best. Meanwhile,
Georgetown was reliving John Thompson’s golden era, hitting every shot they launched at the rim. Basketball is a game of runs, and the Hoyas found themselves in the midst of an epic heater. When Clemson finally cleared their head and started playing basketball again, the score was 45-27 with 1:49 remaining in the half before Clemson hit a little run before halftime, giving the team the faintest whiff of momentum and making the score 47-32 heading into the break.
The Tigers flipped the switch in the second half, thanks to Cole Certa and Ace Buckner’s scoring and a more consistent defensive and rebounding effort. With 13:18 remaining, the Tigers cut Georgetown’s 15-point halftime lead to 4 with a David Faulkner dunk, turning a game that looked like a lost cause in the first half into something worth watching. Unfortunately for Clemson, every time it looked like they were taking control, Georgetown’s veteran backcourt of Elmarko Jackson and Jaland Lowe had an answer. When Clemson took a 62-61 lead on a Cole Certa 3 with 8 minutes remaining, the Hoyas went down to the other end and matched it with a Jaland Lowe 3 to retake the lead. When a Cole Certa layup at the 6:23 mark put the Tigers up by 2, Elmarko Jackson responded with a mid-range jumper to tie it at 66-66 with 5:49 remaining. Jackson then proceeded to take the game on his shoulders for the Hoyas. He scored 8 of their next 10 points while Clemson’s hot shooting cooled off. Jackson’s layup with 3:00 minutes remaining, at which point he handed the scoring baton off to Jaland Lowe, who scored 9 of Georgetown’s final 11 points. A Chase Thompson 3 with 26 seconds got the Tigers to 5 points at 81-76, but the Hoyas managed to handle the Clemson press (with the help of a couple of questionable calls from the refs), finishing the game off with a Vince Iwucjukwu dunk as time expired.
Georgetown was led in scoring by Jaland Lowe, who scored 21 points, including a 3-for-6 from beyond the arc. Vince Iwuchukwu contributed a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double while towering over the Clemson front court, and Elmarko Jackson added 17 points, many of which came at the exact right moment for Ed Cooley’s crew.
Clemson was led in scoring by Ace Buckner with 20 points, with Cole Certa adding an additional 14 points. Liutauras Lelevicius was the only other Tiger in double digits with 10.
As the announcers pointed out on seemingly every possession, Clemson isn’t close to complete yet, with Dillon Hunter’s eligibility case in limbo, while players in similar eligibility situations take the court nightly and Carter Welling recovering from his late-season ACL tear. Hopefully, this game taught a young, still-developing Tiger squad that showing up for only 1 half of basketball won’t get the job done against a decent opponent like Georgetown.
The dream of an undefeated National Championship season is over as the Tigers’ record falls to 3-1. They return to action on Monday with a home game against The Citadel.
