Harder than it needed to be, but what else would you expect in the rivalry?

South Carolina and Clemson men's basketball entered Tuesday night's game with two games decided by a total of seven points in the last two years. But in act three of the Lamont Paris era, they took it to another level.

Clemson's Chase Hunter hit an off-balanced 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime after the Gamecocks led by seven with unde two minutes remaining, but South Carolina grinded out a 91-88 win in the extra session to land its biggest win of the season to date and emerge victorious in what turned into a bare-knuckled slugfest by the end of it.

South Carolina (8-3) had a seven-point lead with under two minutes remaining in overtime. But just as it did in regulation, Clemson (9-3) rallied. The Tigers trimmed the deficit to two points and had the ball down two with a chance to potentally even steal the game on the final possession. When Christian Reeves drew a foul on Nick Pringle to foul out the Gamecock big, making him the fifth player in the game to earn a disqualification on a whistle-happy evening, he had two free throws with a chance to force double overtime.

With only 3.7 seconds left, he rattled the first one around and out. And while trying to intentionally miss the second one to secure a chance at a rebuond, he banked it in. Jamarii Thomas secured the ensuing inbound,

A steamy, ferocious rivalry game reached boiling point with a hotly-contested second half and an intense back-and-forth game, a tightly-officiated affair with 44 total foul calls and both coaches having to dodge the bullets of foul trouble all night. South Carolina's (8-3) Collin Murray-Boyles and Zachary Davis both had four early in the second half. Clemson (9-3) starters Viktor Lakhin and Ian Schieffelin both fouled out, and the game's flashpoint moment involved an ejection.

With 12:46 left in the second half, Clemson's Dillon Hunter headbutted South Carolina's Morris Ugusuk under the basket while going for a rebound. He was issued a flagrant two foul and an immediate ejection, a play which forced the Tigers to play down three starters after Lakhin and Schieffelin fouled out. That play was a match on a fire this game hardly needed, but it escalated it to another level. A packed Colonial Life Arena featuring a courtside audience of Shane Beamer and Dawn Staley watched the two foes trade haymakers for most of the second half.

A seesaw game finally looked to gain some separation when the Gamecocks went on a 9-0 run to take a 76-69 advantage with under two minutes remaining, but that's when Chase Hunter went off. The Clemson point guard went on a personal 6-0 run with back-to-back made 3-pointers, almost instantly changing te entire tenor of the game.

And with a 79-77 lead and 10.5 seconds to go, Jacobi Wright missed two free throws that would have all but iced the game. Myles Stute bailed him out with an offense rebound and safely got the ball to Thomas, who was of course fouled moments later. Thomas split the pair to leave the door open, and then in a situation where fouling up three would have prevented a look, two Gamecocks had an opportunity to grab Clemson point guard Chase Hunter.

No foul, a clean look, and a tie game.

But in the overtime, South Carolina re-grouped and wore down the Tigers even after Murray-Boyles and Pringle both fouled out, Ugusuk knocked down a clutch 3-pointer, Wright and Thomas both had strong drives for layups, and even more Hunter heroics were not enough to deny the Gamecocks.

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