No. 19 Clemson left the court in Conte Forum Tuesday night with a forgettable performance in a 62-54 loss to Boston College. The Tigers shot just 30.8-percent from the field and missed 17 of their last 19 shots over the final 13 minutes of the game.
Clemson entered needing just one more victory for an 11th conference win of the season, which would tie a program record.
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BC, which bagged its second win over a ranked team this season, improved to 11-12 and 5-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference while Clemson fell to 18-5 and 10-2 in league play. The Tigers have won 10 of their last 12 games but Tuesday night’s loss pulled Virginia even with the Tigers in the loss column in the ACC.
Hunter Tyson’s spot-up three-pointer four minutes in put Clemson up 8-2.
The Eagles, which led for just 2:52 in the first half, missed their first five shots before a pull-up jumper from Makai Ashton-Langford at the 5:15 minute mark. From there, it wouldn’t be long before BC would seize momentum, building a 10-2 run after a layup by Quintin Post cut the Tigers’ advantage to 21-18.
Moments later a Chase Hunter shot was blocked from behind by Ashton-Langford who quickly scored on BC’s next possession, putting the Eagles up 22-21 with 3:48 left before the break, the first lead of the game for the home team. P.J. Hall, who was largely contained by good defense from Post in the first half, responded with a hook shot on the next possession, but the Tigers would not score the remainder of the half as BC closed the period on a 22-4 run in the final 9:47 minutes.
Clemson committed 11 first-half turnovers and went into intermission down 30-23.
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The Tigers would find themselves down by 12 at 39-27 just under three minutes into the second period after Ashton-Langford’s conversion from long range. Clemson would claw its way back, tying the game at 45-45 after R.J. Godfrey collected two shots at the line with 7:42 left.
BC went on a 5-0 run and would continue to maintain its advantage while the Tigers remained without a basket. With 1:34 left, Hall’s two free throws would close the gap to within three with the Eagles on top 52-49. The Tigers would come no closer the rest of the way, as the Eagles would convert shots on each of their final four trips to the foul line.
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Clemson head coach Brad Brownell, who is 12-5 all-time versus BC, was opposite Eagles coach Earl Grant, who served as a Clemson assistant coach from 2010-2014.
Ashton-Langford led all BC scorers with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting. The Eagles were by no stretch sharp offensively, shooting just 40-percent, but were outstanding defensively, disrupting passing lanes while opportunistically cashing in on 17 Clemson turnovers.
The Tigers hit on just 6-of-21 (28.6%) from beyond the arc, but did convert a perfect 16-of-16 at the line. Tyson led all scorers with 22 points, adding eight rebounds. Hall pulled down a game-high nine boards, but scored just nine points. Hunter was the only other Tiger to reach double figures in scoring (12) on 4-of-14 shooting.
The game marked the return of Clemson guard Alex Hemenway, who has been battling plantar fasciitis. Hemenway received 15 minutes of work but did not score and attempted just one basket.
The Tigers will return to Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday to host Miami (17-5, 8-4) with no margin for error in order to maintain their footing atop the ACC standings. The game is set for a 3:00 p.m. ET tip and will be televised by the ACC Network.
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