CLEMSON, S.C. — The rivalry lived up to the hype, but so did the Clemson Tigers.
South Carolina men's basketball suffered its first loss of the season in a nail-biter at Littlejohn Coliseum, slowly letting an 11-point lead slip away before No. 24 Clemson found just enough down the stretch to win 72-67 in the battle of undefeated rivals.
Clemson (8-0) went on an 11-3 run after South Carolina (7-1) took its final lead of the night with 5:34 to go, keyed by a pair of clutch Ian Schieffelin shots to attain the lead and some tight defense in the closing minutes. A stretch of just two made field goals in over six minutes ended up being South Carolina's undoing along with balanced scoring from Clemson with five players in double-figures.
A first half of runs started exactly as it proceeded, with South Carolina scoring 10 of the game’s first 12 points before Clemson immediately responded by pouring in the next seven. The Gamecocks led for most of the opening frame thanks to hot Meechie Johnson shooting, including a stretch where he checked back into the game after a breather and hit two 3-pointers in short succession. He scored 11 in the first half and 26 in the game, keeping pace with PJ Hall on the other side. Hall scored 14 points, and Chauncey Wiggins led the way for Clemson with 15.
Clemson’s leading scorer scored nine early points to hold his team in the game, but ran into a dry spell late in the first half. In fact he went over 10 minutes without scoring including a chunk of action after the restart, and Clemson as a team did not score any points over the final 7:40 of the first half. Lamont Paris altered his looks at Hall with B.J. Mack, Stephen Clark and Myles Stute all taking turns guarding the all-ACC caliber big, and it yielded results.
South Carolina built its largest lead of the game early in the second half at 44-33 after two Johnson free throws and even had a shot in the air with a chance to extend the lead to 14, but it rimmed out and Clemson started its best run of the game in the aftermath.
The Tigers scored the next 11 points to bring a mostly dead home crowd back to life, starting with back-to-back jumpers before a Joseph Girard III 3-pointer really got the building going and finally an RJ Godfrey layup tied the score.
Needing an answer, completely knocked against the ropes in its first hostile environment of the season, Ta’Lon Cooper answered the bell with a 3-pointer on the next possession. It started a series of haymakers from the two sides, with a pair of lead changes in the next three minutes as they traded big shots.
Wiggins had the biggest answers, though. Coming out of a timeout with 8;12 remaining, the sophomore forward who entered the game shooting just 26.7 percent from 3-point range hit back-to-back triples, accounting for a personal 6-0 run to swing the pendulum in the home team’s direction.
After South Carolina re-established a 56-54 lead, there was another personal run for the Tigers. Just two possessions, but two crucial blows.
Schieffelin — playing with four fouls by this point — nailed a 3-pointer to give the Tigers a 57-56 lead and then scored inside on the next possession, and South Carolina never took the lead back again.
The Gamecocks will turn around and play their only other true road game of non-conference play on Saturday at East Carolina.
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