Hurricanes ride hot second half to rally over No. 16 Clemson |
Two of the nation’s most efficient offenses met in Coral Gables Wednesday night, but Miami's second half effort went to another level in a 95-82 win over the No. 16-ranked Clemson Tigers.
The Hurricanes (11-2, 2-0 ACC), which made the Final Four last season, scored 60 points in the second half, which was the most ever versus a Brad Brownell Clemson team, shooting 75 percent from the field over the final 20 minutes to overcome an eight-point deficit. Overall, it was the most Clemson has given up in regulation since 2017 (109 v. Florida State). The Tigers dropped to 11-2 (1-1 ACC) after falling short in a bid for a sixth win away from Littlejohn Coliseum already. "They were fantastic. They played with unbelievable pace. Some terrific shot-making," Brownell said of Miami. "Obviously I'm very disappointed in our team. Defensively we were non-existent. I didn't think we made very many competitive plays. I've been fighting them on this for a while now. I actually raised a little hell with them in practice on Friday and told them that they better get ready...We have a lot of talented offensive players, but unfortunately, sometimes our identity is with our offense. We haven't been able to get the major stops that we need in certain games to win. A couple times, Memphis and here. And credit Miami, I thought Miami, they were unbelievable in the second half, but defensively, we just have to be better." The conference’s leaders in 3-point percentage flexed their respective muscles there in a first half with five lead changes. After Miami led the majority of the session, Ian Schieffelin knocked down the fifth of six Clemson 3-pointers with seven minutes to go in the first half, for a Tiger edge kept into the break. Miami’s Kyshawn George made four of the Hurricanes’ seven first-half treys. The Hurricanes missed their final four shots of the first half, however, in an over 3-minute scoring drought to trail Clemson 41-35 at the break. Miami’s 3-point count quickly grew to nine makes in cutting the Clemson lead down to two early in the second half, and the Hurricanes’ hot shooting continued from there with an 11-0 run to take their biggest lead yet, 58-51, with just over 13 minutes left in the game. Miami scored 19 points in a six-minute start to the half. The Hurricanes’ lead extended to nine points for a second time with under ten minutes to go. In a return from injury, former K-State transfer Nijel Pack had 16 second-half points in the stretch to take that advantage. Pack finished with a game-high 25, joined in that tier by Norchad Omier and Matthew Cleveland (23 points each). Clemson’s 3-point stroke abandoned it in falling behind by eight with eight to go, sinking just one of eight 3-point attempts in the half by then. A 7-0 Miami run and then a 7-for-7 stretch shooting from the field gave the Hurricanes their largest lead yet (12) with just under four minutes left. "We have to able to make guys miss a few more," Brownell said. "Their speed really bothered us. We did not get the game to play a little slower. Sometimes it's a push with our guys -- need to slow down and make sure that our big guys are involved as much as I want them involved. But at the end of the day, this was a team that just outplayed us thoroughly in the last 20 minutes of the game. Against a talented team like this, if they get that kind of confidence -- you're going to have problems, and we did." All-American candidate PJ Hall’s night ended early by fouling out with 2:25 left, leading Clemson with 17 points at that point, including 10 of the Tigers’ 33 points in the half by then. Joseph Girard then finished with a Clemson-best 18 points, joined in double-figures by Chase Hunter (16), Chauncey Wiggins (12) and Schieffelin (11). Clemson dropped to 3-2 in games versus the NCAA’s NET Quadrant 1 opponents for the NCAA Tournament resume. The Tigers were a projected No. 2 seed in ESPN’s bracketology earlier this week. Clemson returns home to take on No. 8 North Carolina on Saturday (noon/ESPN2).
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