Virginia Tech stuns Clemson at the buzzer as Tigers fall in OT

Clemson’s winning streak and ACC Tournament run ended in heartbreaking fashion.

Virginia Tech’s Darius Maddox hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer over Tigers guard Al-Amir Dawes to stun Clemson and lift the Hokies to a 76-75 win over the Tigers Wednesday night in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

Maddox’s heroics came after the Tigers battled back from a 14-point deficit to force overtime. But in the end, Clemson came up just short.

“Obviously brutal. Brutal ending,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “Just incredibly proud of the way our guys competed, not just tonight but throughout the season. A lot of adversity, and our guys just kept getting better and being coachable and working through things.”

After trailing by 14 early in the second half, the Tigers slowly chipped away.

Clemson eventually took a lead with 1:13 remaining on a 3-pointer by Nick Honor. After the teams exchanged baskets, Storm Murphy hit a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left in regulation to give the Hokies a two-point lead.

Tigers star PJ Hall, who battled through pain all night, answered with a bucket to force overtime. Hall finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds to lead the Tigers and keep Clemson in the game.

“His performance down the stretch, the baskets that he made at the end were big time. I mean, we went to him, and he delivered on multiple occasions,” Brownell said. “Great job by our team of putting him in a good position and then certainly he showed why he’s a great player.”

With Clemson leading by one and 30 seconds remaining in overtime, Dawes made one of two free throws to push Clemson’s lead to 74-72.

Virginia Tech’s Justyn Mutts was fouled on the ensuing possession and made one of two free throws to cut the lead to one. Hall then connected on one of two free throws to make it a two-point game and set up Maddox’s buzzer beater.

Brownell wasn’t happy with the way Clemson defended the play, allowing Maddox to dribble down the court and step into the shot.

“He picked it up early enough, but he didn’t stay into the ball. Obviously we talked about no threes. If they go by us and they make a two, that’s fine, but we don’t want any threes,” Brownell said. “We picked him up, but we just kept backing up. … At the end of the day, they just threw it to a guy and he dribbled up and shot it over our guy. We needed to be a little tighter, and we shouldn’t have kept backing up and kind of let him walk into one, and to his credit, he made it.”

Chase Hunter (13), Hunter Tyson (12) and David Collins (12) also finished in double figures for the Tigers.

Murphy, who transferred in from Wofford, got Virginia Tech off to a strong start, scoring 12 points in the first half on 4-for-4 shooting from 3-point range. Fellow Wofford transfer Keve Aluma led all scorers with 19 points.

Virginia Tech advances to face No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the quarterfinals on Thursday.