ATLANTA – Clemson’s men’s basketball team found itself in an all-too-familiar position Saturday afternoon.
They needed a little longer than they would’ve liked, but this one eventually turned out better than the other ones for the Tigers.
After watching one sizable lead after another slip away during their recent skid, Clemson used four double-digit scorers to hold off Drake in overtime for its best win of the non-conference schedule so far. Clemson’s 90-80 victory at the Holiday Hoopsgiving event inside State Farm Arena was just its second since Nov. 18 and ended a two-game skid.
Clemson (6-4) led by as many as 11 in the final 20 minutes Saturday but went the final 6 minutes, 34 seconds of regulation without a basket. Drake (6-4) eventually caught up to force overtime, but the Tigers scored the first five points in the extra frame and later got back-to-back 3-pointers from Al-Amir Dawes and Nick Honor for a three-possession lead that all but iced the win, one that was too close for comfort but one the Tigers will take considering how things have gone lately.
PJ Hall paced Clemson with 22 points and a career-high 13 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Dawes finished with 19 points while David Collins, Alex Hemenway and Honor added 19, 12 and 12, respectively.
Clemson came in losers of four of its last five games, letting some pretty significant cushions slip away in all of them. Three of those losses came after the Tigers held double-digit leads in the second half.
It happened again Saturday with Clemson taking multiple double-digit cushions late against Drake, the last coming after Hall’s old-fashioned three-point play at the end of the putback put the Tigers up 69-58 with 6:35 left.
But the Bulldogs kept coming.
Clemson went without a basket for the rest of regulation, and Drake used a 13-3 run to get within one with less than a minute left. Honor drew a foul on Drake’s Garrett Sturtz as the shot clock wound down on the Tigers’ next possession and sank both free throws to make it a three-point game before Tremell Murphy buried a tying 3 from the top of the key to tie it with 13 seconds left.
Clemson took a timeout with 8.9 seconds left to draw up one final play for Hall, who got the entry pass from Honor just feet from the basket. But his turnaround jumper fell short, sending the game to overtime.
Dawes had 13 points in the first half, including a 3 to cap a 7-0 run for Clemson going to the locker room. The Tigers also got a lift off the bench from Hemenway to take a 39-32 lead at the break.
Hemenway sank a trio of 3s in the opening 20 minutes to help spark the Tigers after a slow start. Clemson missed on six of its first eight shots before Hall, Hemenway and Dawes scored on three straight trips to give the Tigers their first lead. Hemenway knocked down another trey two possessions later, and by the time he did so again with 7:39 left in the first half, he already had a season-high in points, surpassing the six he scored against Charleston Southern and Temple.
Clemson took its biggest lead of the half at 32-24 on Collins’ layup with 5:20 remaining, but Drake stayed close by knocking down six 3s of its own in the opening 20 minutes. D.J. Wilkins and Murphy sank back-to-back 3-balls to start an 8-0 run that drew the Bulldogs even before Clemson answered with its own spurt in the final 1:47 to take momentum back at the half.
This story will be updated.