Clemson couldn’t bounce back from three late turnovers and some questionable calls, losing 72-71 to No. 12 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The Tigers (13-6 overall, 3-5 ACC) battled hard and had a shot to win it late, but Ian Schieffelin’s three turnovers in a row kept Duke’s hopes alive. Then, with just a second left, a controversial foul on Josh Beadle sent Tyrese Proctor to the free-throw line, sealing the deal for Duke.
A lot of noise has come from this matchup, with the officiating being one of the most discussed points from the game. Objectively, it was a poorly officiated game, and I doubt many would argue that. These ACC officials did a terrible job on Saturday, and Clemson head coach Brad Brownell was vocal about it after the game.
“I’m angry. Trying to watch what I say here a little bit, but yeah, the game felt like it was taken from us a little bit at the end. We had (missed) chances. There were a couple of opportunities for us to finish the game (including) several on offense, but we had a couple of turnovers. I thought the last one was probably a really good play by their post-player. I thought Mark Mitchell made a really tough steal. The play before was really the one that was a killer.”
Here is a look at how social media reacted to the bad calls and Brownell’s words after the game.