Virginia Tech dropped its third straight game on Saturday afternoon in a 72-57 loss to Clemson.
The Tigers (17-4, 9-1 ACC) evaded some runs from the Hokies (8-12, 3-6) in Cassell Coliseum, including a surge midway through the second half that cut what was previously a 17-point margin to four. They showed why they’re one of the league’s best by responding when Tech threw a punch.
“That’s what good teams do,” Tech head coach Mike Young said of Clemson’s resolve. “And good teams playing against them hold the line and continue to battle. Our team continued to battle, but they have the ability to hit you with a 6-0, 8-0 [run]. I had to call timeout in there at the under-eight. But that’s what good teams do, and they’ve got a really good team.”
It was a back-and-forth contest through the first 14 minutes, and Brandon Rechsteiner’s 3-pointer at the 6:39 mark put Tech up 26-24. However, Clemson responded with 12 quick points over the next three minutes and forced the Hokies to call timeout. A trey from Jake Heidbreder capped off a 15-0 run and the Tigers led 41-29 at halftime.
Tech made just eight of its 26 first-half field goals, including a 5-of-13 mark from behind the arc. On 2-point shots, it was a poor 3-of-13 (23%), and all three makes came in a span of 2:09 in the middle of the half.
It seemed like Clemson would run away with it, but the Hokies came out of the locker room with grit. After the margin ballooned to 17 in the first two minutes of the second half, they buckled down out of the under-16 media timeout.
It was a slow but steady 9-0 run over the next four minutes, which featured two buckets from Tobi Lawal. Ben Burnham had a key triple leading up to it and forced the steal that led to that opportunity. He was impactful with eight points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal in 28 minutes.
“You know what you’re going to get — he’s going to play really hard,” Young said of Burnham. “Didn’t give us a lot on Wednesday in Atlanta, but bounces back today and competed his tail off.”
On the defensive end, Tech forced eight misses in a row and Tigers head coach Brad Brownell called timeout. All of a sudden, it was a six-point game.
It was then Brownell did something unique: He subbed in Chase Hunter for the first time all night. Clemson’s star point guard had been dealing with a stomach bug and wasn’t going to play except for an emergency situation, and Brownell deemed it as such. It was a 49-43 Tigers lead with 11:52 remaining when Hunter entered the game.
Then the Hokies’ chance came and went. After Hunter missed a 3-point look on his first possession, they had an opportunity under the basket, though the feed down low from Rodney Brown Jr. to Mylyjael Poteat was mishandled. He drove on the floor for it and tried to save it back to Brown, but his pass ricocheted off Burnham and out of bounds.
“I think we were down as much as 17, came all the way back,” Young said. “I think had the ball and turned it over, which would be par for the course, but I thought the activity was good. We were as good defensively as we had been to that point against a really impressive offensive unit from Clemson.
“But we’re getting to the stretch of all these games … when you’ve got to bear down. It’s winning time and you’ve got to continue to play good basketball. They’ve got the right intentions, but not getting a timely shot down, a defensive mistake from one person seems to bite us in the rear end, and that’s certainly a sign of younger people.”
Two more missed shots from the Tigers came and went — both from Hunter, who started 0-of-3 — and Burnham got a tough jumper down off the glass to cut the deficit to four.
Things collapsed from there, though. Jaeden Zackery got downhill and drew a foul on the following possession, which led to two made free throws, and after a Tech turnover, Chauncey Wiggins banged a three for Clemson. The Tigers made seven of their next nine shots over six-plus minutes while the Hokies struggled, and a 12-1 run put the game back out of reach.
“I think it was just putting together good play after good play,” Brownell said. “Just good consistency.”
Despite only scoring two points, Hunter’s presence in the waning moments calmed Clemson’s nerves. And it was freshman guard Del Jones who was the Tigers’ X-factor. He entered the contest averaging 3.7 points in 10 minutes per game this season but had 13 crucial ones (on 5-of-7 shooting) and five boards in 23 minutes against Tech. Nine of those points came in the last nine minutes.
“He’s kind of been coming [on],” Brownell said of Jones. “… I just think we’ve started to see some consistency there, and obviously he was big down the stretch. … We told him before the game, ‘You’re going to play more,’ but he took advantage of his opportunity.”
The Hokies have been in close games several times this year, from South Carolina, Pitt and Stanford to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. What can they learn from this one and apply moving forward?
“I think we’ve just got to execute better and defend better,” Burnham said, “especially when we’ve done that all the way to cut the lead. Getting over the hump and winning a game like that would be good.”
Wiggins paced Clemson with 16 points while Zackery and Viktor Lakhin chipped in 11 each. Jones also joined them in double figures. Ian Schieffelin was quiet offensively with just six points but grabbed seven rebounds.
Tech’s scoring was spread out, led by Lawal’s 14 points and six rebounds. Jaydon Young added nine while Johnson posted seven.
As a group, the Hokies were 38 percent from the field (19-of-50) while the Tigers shot 48 percent (28-of-58).
Tech is back on the road on Wednesday at Florida State before traveling to Charlottesville on Saturday to face Virginia. It’s back in Blacksburg the following Wednesday vs. SMU.
Box Score: Clemson 72, Virginia Tech 57
Thoughts from #Hokies' 72-57 loss to Clemson: pic.twitter.com/jeGIJJssaT
— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) January 26, 2025