P.J. Hall turned in a career-high 28 points for Clemson, but a RayQuan Evans jumper with 14 seconds left and a subsequent free throw conversion would give Florida State enough to edge the Tigers 81-80 Tuesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center. Clemson had led by four points with just under a minute remaining.
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The Tigers (12-14, 4-11), who entered the game having won three of their last four in the series, have now dropped nine of their last 11 games.
Florida State (14-11, 7-8) was led by Evans' 28 points, which tied a game-high with Hall.
The Seminoles quickly moved out to a 5-0 lead and led for much of the first half, but Clemson would tie the Noles at 16 at the 11:34 minute mark on an Al-Amir Dawes jumper. Dawes added 18 points, including a 4-for-11 effort from three-point range.
A three-pointer by Dawes with 2:31 remaining before intermission gave Clemson its largest lead of the first half at 36-29. FSU would pull within four just over two minutes later on two free throw conversions by Cam'Ron Fletcher before going into the break down 40-36 after the two teams traded baskets.
Clemson carried its lead nearly three minutes into the second half before a John Butler three-pointer would tie the game at 46. From there FSU would begin to build a lead where it would reach a 70-62 advantage with 7:15 remaining after an Evans basket from long range.
The Tigers responded with an 8-0 run and pulled even with the Noles at 74 with 3:38 left after two Hall free throw conversions. Hall would go on to score the next six points for Clemson, giving the Tigers an 80-76 lead
A foul by Naz Bohannon sent Evans to the line where he converted both free throws before nailing a jumper with 14 seconds left. Nick Honor's foul sent Evans back to the line where he completed the three-point play which would be all the Noles would need to secure the win after Alex Hemenway's three-point miss with one second left.
FSU shot 43.6-percent from the floor and hit 8-of-19 (42.1%) from long range. Fletcher (18) and Matthew Cleveland (13) joined Evans in scoring double figures.
Clemson shot just 38.6% and converted just 6-of-27 (22.2%) three-point attempts. Hemenway (12) joined Hall and Dawes in scoring double figures. David Collins returned to lead the Tigers in rebounds (11). Collins served a suspension by the Atlantic Coast Conference against Notre Dame last Saturday after committing a flagrant foul against Duke on Thursday.
Clemson head coach Brad Brownell is now 9-17 all-time against Florida State.
FSU will travel to No. 9 Duke (22-4, 12-3) on Saturday while Clemson will remain on the road to face Louisville (11-13, 5-9). The game is set for a 3:00 p.m. tipoff.
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