Clemson’s men’s basketball had a chance to right the wrongs of some missed opportunities.
The only thing the Tigers (10-8, 2-5 ACC) left New York with, though, was another loss as they dropped yet another conference game.
Another uncharacteristic defensive performance doomed the Tigers, as they fell 91-78 to Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Tuesday night. Clemson got a combined 37 points from P.J. Hall and David Collins and another 25 points off the bench.
And yet, it wasn’t enough as they had no answer for Syracuse on the opposing end.
The Orange had four scorers in double figures, including Buddy Boeheim, who had a game-high 25 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Joseph Girard III had 23 points of his own, while Jesse Edwards added 15 and Jimmy Boheim had 13.
Postgame, Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said that he’s not really pleased with any of his players on the defensive end.
“Just didn’t play well enough defensively,” Brownell said. “It’s been a little bit of a common theme with this team. We’ve got a great group of kids, but we’re not as tough as we need to be and it shows up, especially on the defensive end.
While Brownell was pleased with his team’s offensive execution, especially against Syracuse’s zone defense, it was overshadowed by yet another poor defensive performance.
As we know, traditional zone defenses can force the opposing team to let it fly on the offensive end. While not always the ideal shot, three-pointers tend to become more open. The problem for a team that’s shot the lights out of the ball all season, is that Syracuse’s variation of the zone is a little different.
Boeheim makes a point of playing high and limiting open looks from deep. Clemson shot just 3-of-11 (27.3%) from beyond the arc in the first frame. They would, however, find some answers in the paint, scoring nearly half of their first-half points there.
The Tigers headed into a media timeout with 11 minutes and 34 seconds remaining in the first half, down 23-14. That’s when Clemson was able to regroup and finally find some of its footing.
A 30-19 run propelled a Tigers team that was once down as many as 12 points to just a 1-point halftime deficit at 40-39. Any momentum that was created heading into the break was left inside the locker room(s) at the Carrier Dome.
Brownell told his team at halftime that they had to do better defensively, that 40 points in one-half were just too much. Then, they gave up another 51 in the second-half.
“I’m very disappointed with our defense,” he said. “I got to do some things to try and help our team be better because right now, we’re a below-average defensive team.”
While Syracuse put up 51 points in the second half, it wasn’t because the Orange were shooting the ball from 3-point range at a high clip. In fact, they shot the ball from beyond the arc in the second frame at a similar pace as Clemson.
Syracuse was able to make some tough shots and scored 24 of its 51 second-half points in the paint.
“That’s gonna happen at this level,” Brownell said. “You’re gonna have some really good players make some tough shots. You have a lot of other defensive possessions that need to be sound, so those possessions don’t beat you. We just had too many mistakes and we’re not tough enough guarding our guy. We don’t win our matchup. That’s become a consistent theme.”
Brownell indicated that it’s not due to a lack of effort, but attributed some blame to the personnel.
“We’re physically a little weak,” he said. “We’re physically smaller and weaker and some of that’s a product of recruiting. We gotta think about that. Obviously, what you get on the other end is you get some skill. You get guys that can shoot. You get guys that can pass. That’s why offensively, we had a bunch of guys who shoot at a high percentage from three and we scored 78 tonight.”
Brownell was happy with the team’s offensive effort and felt like Hall responded in a great way on the offensive end.
“We did a really good job of finding ways to get him the ball,” Brownell said. “I thought we did some good things to help P.J. and our guys found him, which was really good against the zone. P.J., when he gets a good position, he can have a big night like tonight. That was good to see.”
Hall is dealing with a lingering foot issue that has caused him to miss practice and will cost him some practice time going forward.
“Man, he was really good tonight, offensively,” Brownell added.
While Hall has done a respectable job of replacing Aamir Simms on the offensive end, Brownell claimed that Clemson misses his defense “drastically.” That’s certainly shown over the past week as the Tigers are now on a 3-game skid.
It’s clear that right now, Clemson isn’t putting together a good enough effort defensively in the eyes of its head coach.
The Tigers will look to bounce back when they return to Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday against Pitt.
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