Clemson handled their business on Wednesday night in the second round of the ACC Tournament, knocking off Wake Forest 71-62, redeeming its 85-77 upset loss to the Demon Deacons on February 18th. The Tigers’ balanced offense proved to be exactly that, with Clemson’s prodigal son, RJ Godfrey, leading the way with 11 points and a team high 8 rebounds. All 10 Tigers that entered the contest scored, with six players scoring 8 or more points, with Godfrey they only player to crack double digits. Wake was
paced by Juke Harris’s 22 points in the losing effort. Wake moves to 17-16 on the season and is looking for an auxiliary tournament to wrap up the 2025-26 season. The Tigers move to 23-9 and will play North Carolina tonight (3/12) at 9:30 with a spot in the semifinals and crucial NCAA Tournament seeding on the line.
Before I get into the game, I’m going to talk about Clemson playing in “waves”.
The First Wave (aka the starters)
PG: Dillion Hunter
SG: Jestin Porter
SF: Butta Johnson
PF: RJ Godfrey
C: Carter Welling
The Second Wave
PG: Ace Buckner
SG: Dallas Thomas
SF: Jake Wahlin
PF: Chase Thompson
C: Nick Davidson
The first half was the best basketball I’ve seen out of the Tigers this season. Now that I think about it, it may have been one of the best-played halves in the Brownell era. Coach Brownell employed two waves of players, subbing out entire lineups like he was auditioning for an offseason job as Clemson’s club hockey team coach. The defense was smothering, and the 3-pointers were flying from every angle.
The Tigers’ first line change occurred at the 5-minute mark of the half, with the Tigers holding a 7-10 lead on the strength of two Butta Johnson 3-pointers.
The second wave hit the floor running. Dallas Thomas and Ace Buckner drained back-to-back 3’s, Chase Thompson then went on a personal 5-point scoring binge, and Ace chipped in another 3 for good measure. The second unit pushed the lead to 24-16 before giving way to the first wave at the 10-minute mark of the half.
Both teams hit an offensive lull in the next 5-minute segment, which was fine for Clemson. Carter Welling drained a 3, RJ hit a hook shot, and the Tigers pushed the lead to 29-18, before the second wave hit the court again at the 5-minute mark.
The next segment of play essentially put the game out of reach. Dallas Thomas hit his second 3 of the half, Chase Thompson added another bucket, and Jake Wahlin forced Wake Forest to call a timeout after extending the lead to 37-20 on a Jake Wahlin perimeter shot. The Tigers were cooking, and the vibes were impeccable, then disaster struck.
Carter Welling aggressively drove the ball to the basket, and his right knee buckled when he attempted to elevate. It was clear that something was terribly wrong when his anguished cries were immediately audible on the broadcast. I’ve been there. You’re doing something you’ve done a million times, and suddenly, something pops in your knee. That pop might originate in the knee but resonates through your entire body like a shockwave. You know you’re cooked before you hit the court, and you gain a new understanding of Albert Einstein’s example relativity.
When A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute – and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.
I’m willing to bet the 5 minutes Welling spent writhing on the court felt like a month. I know it felt like that for me. The Clemson big man would be escorted to the locker room with a trainer under each arm. He would later be shown leaning on crutches with his leg in an immobilizer. When they break out the immobilizer, it’s never a good sign. Needless to say, Carter’s availability moving forward is in serious question
Clemson tacked on another 4 points to their lead after the Welling disaster and headed into the locker room with a commanding 41-23 lead, but the Welling injury cast a pall over an otherwise exceptional and exceptionally fun half. The team you saw in the first half was the best version of this team, and that version looked like an absolute buzz saw.
Unfortunately, without Welling, that team no longer exists.
Wake heated up in the second half and threatened to make a game of it. After scoring 2 points in the first half, Nate Calmese did the thing that happens to Clemson on occasion: he entered a fugue state and couldn’t stop scoring. When all was said and done, he put a 20-spot in the ledger in 25 minutes of action, with 18 points in the second half.
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling impending doom after the Demon Deacons cut the lead to 10 on a Tre’von Spillers 3 with 8:43 remaining. Then the Tigers did something I wasn’t expecting. They calmed things down and went inside to Nick Davidson and RJ Godfrey. Clemson’s interior duo scored the next 6-points in the game, pushing the lead back to 16, essentially ending the game at the 6-minute mark. Juke Harris’s free throw at the 2-minute mark once again cut the lead to 8, but time wasn’t on the Demon Deacon’s side. Ace Buckner pushed the lead back to double digits with a layup, and Dillon Hunter and Butta Johnson did what experienced guards do; namely, ending the game at the free-throw line.
This is a classic example of the score not reflecting the game. Nate Calmese scored 5-meaningless points in the last minute, including a 3-pointer with 2 seconds remaining, to tighten up the final score, but the game was never in question.
Clemson will face North Carolina tonight at 9:30 in what I consider a must-win game for the Tigers’ NCAA prospects. A win against the Tarheels should push the Tigers off the dreaded 8/9 line and allow them to avoid a round of 32 matchup against a #1 seed.
I’ll wrap this up with another pertinent quote.
Just because Fate doesn’t deal you the right cards, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.
The Tigers got dealt a bum hand with the Welling injury, the second deflating late-season injury in as many years, after Dillon Hunter went down to a wrist injury last season. Clemson has the depth to fill in for their hyper athletic center, but it’s going to require RJ Godfrey, Nick Davidson, Jake Wahlin, and Chase Thompson to step up their game, especially on the defensive end of the court, where Welling’s absence will be acutely felt.
