Clemson falls to Georgetown 79-74 in first road test
Clemson never quite figured out the combination of whistles, pace, and poise it needed in its first road test of the season, falling 79-74 to Georgetown (4-0) on Saturday.
For a game that stayed competitive well into the second half, the afternoon swung on two forces Clemson (3-1) couldn’t steady itself against: free throws and a crowd that surged at the exact moments the Tigers tried to.
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Georgetown earned 32 trips to the line and cashed in on 25 of them. The clearest statistical separator on the afternoon. The officiating crew kept the game tight from the opening tip, stacking up 39 total fouls; if either team breathed the wrong way it was a foul.
But what really shifted the momentum was when the crowd got loud. After Clemson tied the game at 48-48, Capital One Arena cracked open.
Two big Georgetown blocks sent the building into full voice, and Clemson unraveled almost immediately – a four-minute scoring drought, rushed possessions and a wave of turnovers that seemed to get louder with every mistake.
The Hoyas fed off it, stringing together a 14–3 run that turned a dead-even game into a 60-51 deficit.
Clemson chipped back, but the timing never worked in its favor.
Each time the Tigers got within a possession or two, the crowd rose again.
With Georgetown playing nearly the entire back half of the game with just one center available, that amplified Clemson’s frustrations as they failed to exploit it.
The Tigers did show some resolve, especially from the bench.
Carter Welling was Clemson’s most consistent spark, finishing with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting and providing the energy that finally quieted the building during a late push.
His dunk capped a 7-0 run that sliced Georgetown’s lead to 66-63 with under six minutes left, momentarily taking the air out of the arena.
But the silence didn’t last.
On the next big swing, with Clemson down two and sitting in a 2-3 zone, the Tigers lost track of Vincent Iwuchukwu cutting behind the back line – and once he flushed the alley-oop, the building exploded again.
That play ignited a 7-0 Georgetown answer, stretching the lead to 77-68 with under two minutes to go.
Jake Whalin nearly flipped the script anyway.
His back-to-back threes in the final 90 seconds pierced through the noise and pulled Clemson within 77-74, forcing a Georgetown timeout and giving the Tigers a chance to steal what felt like a game slipping away.
But out of that timeout, Iwuchukwu sealed it with a soft hook over Clemson’s zone. With just 18 seconds left the Tigers never scored again.
Whalin finished with eight points and seven boards, while Nick Davidson added 13 and five rebounds.
Zac Foster delivered 11 points, hit two threes, and went 5-for-5 at the line, though his three turnovers hurt during key stretches.
Clemson ended the day shooting 41 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from three – numbers fine enough to win on the road.
What wasn’t sustainable were the empty possessions that always seemed to happen when momentum tilted their way and the inability to control the game in the moments when the crowd had the most influence.
The Tigers also didn’t take advantage of Georgetown playing the last 15 minutes with only one foul-laden big man.
RJ Godfrey struggled to stay on the floor after two early fouls and never settled back in defensively, which tightened Brad Brownell’s rotation more than anticipated.
For a group still figuring out how to play together, this was the kind of road atmosphere that exposes the details.
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Clemson showed depth, stretches of solid defense and enough offensive punch to stay in it.
But the Tigers didn’t manage key possessions well enough to take control back once the arena tilted Georgetown’s way.
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Clemson returns home looking to bounce back Monday at 9 p.m. against North Alabama on ACCN.
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