Brad Brownell breaks down Hunter Tyson’s game-winning shot

Hunter Tyson was the hero for Clemson on Saturday, as the Tigers wing drained a game-winning three-point shot to defeat Virginia Tech.

Afterwards, Clemson leader Brad Brownell spoke about Tyson’s moxie during his post-game press conference, and how he had an inkling that it would be a special day for one of his stars.

“He’s one of our best players. He’s been in it. I felt like he was going to make a play today,” stated Brownell. “He had the option. He could shoot the three. Drive. He could throw it to PJ. He could do different things. But I told him, I said, ‘If you’re open, shoot it. A guy may run at you. If he’s running at you, shot-fake. You’re going to have poise and time and space to make the right basketball play.’

“We just talked about that a lot as a team. Read the game, make the right basketball play. It was a big time shot.”

Moreover, the shot gave Clemson a 51-50 lead at the time, which of course resulted in a eruption from the crowd at Littlejohn Coliseum. From there, the defense did its part to come up with a stop on the ensuing possession and escape with the win and improve to 8-1 in ACC play.

The three-pointer was just the second of the game for Tyson, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds on 4-of-10 shooting. With the win, Clemson bounced back from a loss earlier in the week against Wake Forest to maintain its place as the top team in the conference standings.

Clemson entered halftime trailing 31-26, but used an impressive second-half performance to claw its way back. Despite their overall poor shooting percentage from 3-point range, the Tigers shot 9-of-20 (45%) overall over the final 20 minutes. They also held the Hokies to just 6-of-24 (25%) from the floor.

Earlier this season, the Tigers started 7-0 in ACC play, before falling to Wake Forest this week. Brownell’s squad rose up to No. 19 in the AP poll following their upset of Duke, their first ranking in two years. 

Moving forward, Clemson will hope to carry the momentum from Hunter Tyson’s game-winning 3-pointer into its next game against Georgia Tech on Tuesday. Tip off between the Tigers and Yellow Jackets is set for 9 p.m. ET in Clemson.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this article.