It happened again.
After taking a commanding lead, Clemson (4-2) fell a part down the stretch with a chance to earn a resume-building win agaisnt West Virginia
Behind scoring droughts and turnovers, the Tigers couldn’t get out their way, allowing West Virgina room to rally back for an 66-59 victory in the third round of the Charleston Classic.
The Tigers led St. Bonaventure by 16 points on Friday. They also led West Virgina by 10 points on Sunday night with 14 miuntes left. They wound up losing both games.
Clemson was able to dominate Sunday’s game offensively for the first 10 minutes, but between a seven-minute scoring drought and costly mental errors — 10 turnovers — that allowed West Virginia to take a 1-point lead heading into the break.
After shooting just 2-of-11 from the field in Clemson’s 68-65 loss to No. 22 St. Bonaventure on Friday, Al-Amir Dawes bounced back.
In his postgame press conference Friday, Clemson coach Brad Brownell indicated that he gives Dawes some leniency when it comes to shot taking. While he’d obviously like the decision-making to be better at times, Clemson firmly believes that the good from Dawes outweighs the bad.
Sunday was proof of that, at least for 25 minutes of the game, as he went completely cold in the second half. Dawes scored 18 points, but he also turned over the ball six times.
His lack of offensive presnce conrtibuted to Clemson falling a part in the game’s final eight minutes.
Right out of the gate in the second half, Clemson came out firing on all cylinders. After coming out flat in for the final 20 minutes against the Bonnies on Friday, Clemson wanted to avoid a repeat of letting another winnable game slip away.
The Tigers jumped out to a 15-6 run to start off the game’s second frame. And while they were able to jump out to a 10-point lead, the Tigers had way too many empty possessions plagued by turnovers, allowing for the Mountaineers to eventually make their run.
At one point, the Tigers turned it over on five straight possessions.
Down the stretch of Sunday’s contest, P.J. Hall, Clemson’s leading scorer, and rebounder had to pull himself out of the game. Hall was clearly fatigued playing in his third game in four days. After taking a breather, he checked himself back into the game as a once-commanding 10-point lead dwindled down to just a possession.
While Hall found his way back onto the court, West Virginia took a 13-2 run to take a eventual 4-point lead at 60-56. Clemson went five miuntes without a basket.
It proved to be foretelling.