Sean Pedulla had a career-high 32 points, and Virginia Tech became the latest team to find a hot shooting touch against Clemson as the Tigers dropped their third straight ACC contest, 87-72, at Cassell Coliseum on Wednesday night.
The Tigers (11-4 overall, 1-3 conference) fell behind early again and trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half before Chauncey Wiggins made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the halftime deficit to 53-44 .
The Hokies (10-5 overall, 2-2 conference) shot 61.9 percent from the floor in the first half against a Clemson team that hasn’t won since Dec. 29 and has been a disaster on defense since ACC play resumed a week ago.
In the second half, the Tigers threatened to stay close and crawled to within four points on five separate occasions but never managed to get to within one possession.
When Tyler Nickel made a 3-pointer with 5:32 to play, it pushed Virginia Tech’s lead to 75-66 and forced a Clemson timeout. Robbie Beran sank a 3-pointer with 2:48 left to make it a double-digit affair at 81-70.
All told, Virginia Tech closed the game on a 12-2 run. Their 15-point margin of victory was also their biggest lead of the night.
The Hokies made 13 3-pointers on the night and were 4-of-5 from beyond the arc in the first half. They started the game by making 12 of their first 19 shots from the floor.
Ian Schieffelin led Clemson with 15 points and eight rebounds in only 24 minutes. PJ Hall was held to 11 points and made only 4-of-13 shots. Wiggins had 12 points and made 5 of 7 shots.
Nickel had a career-high 24 points for Virginia Tech.
UP NEXT: Clemson will host Boston College (10-4 overall, 1-2 conference) at Littlejohn Coliseum at 3 p.m. EST on Saturday. The game can be seen on ACC Network.