CLEMSON -- There were still 3.6 seconds on the clock when Duncan Powell let the 3-pointer fly.
Chauncey Wiggins stood with his arms straight up after closing out on Powell beyond the arc.
And kept standing there as the ball sailed high toward the rim.
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And kept standing there as Powell darted toward the rim to chase the rebound.
Wiggins' lack of situational awareness, which allowed Georgia Tech to force the first overtime when Powell followed his own shot at the buzzer, certainly wasn't the only problem for Clemson last night.
But a lot of the other problems are probably not big problems in the bigger picture.
Chase Hunter had an off night. That's going to happen every now and then.
The Tigers missed a ton of shots they usually make. Another aberration, you can easily argue.
But the snapshot involving Wiggins was representative of a fundamental flaw that Brad Brownell has been nervous about.
To rebound mentally from last night's exhausting defeat, this team is going to have to start rebounding better literally.
Georgia Tech missed 48 shots over 55 minutes of basketball.
Clemson snared 30 defensive rebounds.
Georgia Tech had 24 offensive rebounds and totaled 29 second-chance points while out-scoring Clemson 44-28 in the paint.
That's how you lose at home to a team that came in with 10 overall wins and a 4-7 ACC record. No real mystery to it.
And as much as we can justifiably say that the whole narrative today would be different had just one of those shots fallen by Hunter or his brother Dillon, we can also say that Georgia Tech's abominable free-throw shooting (12 of 25) put Clemson in a fortunate position to have so many of those final-shot opportunities.
After it was over, Brownell was asked about the coming showdown with Duke and said he didn't want to talk about it. So much happened last night that he wanted to process that before moving on to the Blue Devils today.
And it's probably appropriate that he wasn't eager to get a head start on the hype that will accompany Saturday evening's game at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Because before he and the rest of the team begin to embark on trying to slay the big blue juggernaut, they have to address their own demons.
The grind of the season has certainly taken its toll. Ian Schieffelin can barely jump because of agonizing back spasms that aren't going away anytime soon, and by all appearances the week off didn't do a great deal of good for him as he batted valiantly in scoring 23 points, grabbing eight rebounds (five offensive) and drawing seven fouls over 42 minutes.
Del Jones missed last night's game with what was initially labeled an ankle injury. Then after the game Brownell said it's actually an Achilles injury.
Wiggins doesn't look fully healthy; he skipped the layup line after halftime to get some massage treatment on his back.
There's probably no miracle solution for Clemson's rebounding woes; it's been a concern for Brownell for a while now, including after Saturday's victory at N.C. State when he pointed out the Wolfpack's 13 offensive rebounds and Wiggins' zero rebounds over more than 31 minutes.
But here's what absolutely has to happen for the Tigers to be formidable on the glass:
Viktor Lakhin has to be on the floor.
Back in mid-December, the Russian was out of sorts at South Carolina and fouled out after playing just 15 minutes of a 45-minute game.
Last night he was on the bench for 39 of the 55 minutes and pulled down three rebounds while missing six of eight shots before fouling out late in regulation.
At halftime Lakhin had just one foul. He then drew two quick ones in the first 1:30 of the second half. His fourth came at the 7:47 mark, and he was done after drawing the fifth with 3:34 on the clock.
From there the Tigers had to play without their big man for the equivalent of almost an entire half -- 18 minutes and 34 seconds. And it didn't help that Georgia Tech went with a bigger lineup after guard Javian McCollum left the game with an apparent head injury suffered after a collision with a teammate late in the first half.
At halftime Clemson had a 20-18 overall rebounding edge and had pulled down 11 defensive boards to just four for the Yellow Jackets. Lakhin played 12 first-half minutes.
From that point it was ugly:
Tech had the same number of offensive rebounds (12) as Clemson had defensive rebounds in the second half.
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In the final 15 overtime minutes the Yellow Jackets had 10 second-chance points off eight offensive rebounds as Clemson totaled seven defensive rebounds and lost the overall board margin 14-7.
"I've talked about defensive rebounding being a problem for us a little bit at times in the year," Brownell said. "We had talked about it. And we kept talking about it at every timeout, and halftime.
"Ultimately I've told the guys that it's going to cost us a game. And it cost us a game. I know we just played almost a game-and-a-half. But 24 offensive rebounds -- I mean that's hard to overcome."
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This team is 18-5 overall and 10-2 in the ACC, so of course you don't want to make too much out of one bad night.
And yes, a lot will be forgiven and forgotten if things go this team's way Saturday and Monday.
But to Brownell's point, some things go deeper than the twists and turns and bounces of 55 minutes of basketball last night.
This team has to rebound to rebound.
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