Clemson falls to Virginia Tech for first loss of season |
No. 24 Clemson (5-1, 0-1 ACC) battled tough and showed some grit but lost their first game of the season with a 66-60 road loss to Virginia Tech (5-1, 1-0 ACC) on Tuesday night.
Clemson was outrebounded by eight boards and shot only 38 percent from the field. The Tigers ended up knocking down 10 three-pointers but it was not enough to get the win as the Hokies made their free throws (25-31 total) down the stretch to ice the game. Individually, Clemson was led by Al-Amir Dawes with 18 points and four rebounds, forward Aamir Simms had 15 points and three rebounds, and guard Clyde Trapp pitched in with 9 points and three rebounds. Tyrece Radford had a solid game for the Hokies with 15 points, two rebounds, two blocks, and a steal. Keve Aluma and Nahiem Alleyne each added 13 points in the win. The Tigers drop to 5-1 on the season. Next up for the Tigers will be hosting Morehead St. on Tuesday, December 12/22 at 2 p.m. ET. POSTGAME QUOTES Head Coach Brad Brownell Opening statement: "I give Virginia Tech a lot of credit. They were ready and looked energized. I was nervous about it. That was a hard game with Alabama on Saturday , and we just didn't quite have our usual pace tonight. [Virginia Tech] matched our effort and played just as hard as we did. There were a couple of loose balls that didn't go our way. I'm certainly proud of how our kids responded after they got down big. They made a game of it. We just couldn't quite get over the hump. We didn't have as much juice as we had the previous five games." On the keys to the game: "I felt like we got off a lot of good shots. It just looked like we didn't quite have our legs under us. Virginia Tech did a good job of making things hard on us. They outplayed us and executed a little bit better than we did. Al-Amir [Dawes] played well. He had a lot of juice tonight and got off to a good start. Virginia Tech was really ready, though. They had a week to prepare, and they put us on our heels from the start.”
?????? Nice dish, @EarlShmitty_!!
— Clemson Basketball (@ClemsonMBB) December 16, 2020
?? @jbaehre1 with the easy finish ??
?? ACCN (https://t.co/f0IdFvV62D)#ClemsonGRIT pic.twitter.com/3NFOzuD8jf
?? That's old school, @AlDawes33. That's old school ??
— Clemson Basketball (@ClemsonMBB) December 16, 2020
He's got 12 straight points for us.
?? ACCN (https://t.co/f0IdFvV62D)#ClemsonGRIT pic.twitter.com/wsNvFYdcNK
?????? An @EarlShmitty_ block leads to a @CTrapp_0 in transition ????
— Clemson Basketball (@ClemsonMBB) December 16, 2020
?? ACCN (https://t.co/f0IdFvV62D)#ClemsonGRIT pic.twitter.com/LuW9gtvoTE
Upgrade Your Account
Unlock premium boards and exclusive features (e.g. ad-free) by upgrading your account today.
Upgrade Now
