Tigers win fourth in row, defeat Hokies on Senior Day

PJ Hall (right) returned from injury to score 12 points.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sat Mar 05 16:20:33 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON- Two hot teams ran into each other Saturday afternoon and it was Clemson that came away with the victory on Senior Day.

PJ Hall returned from injury to lead Clemson with 12 points. Alex Hemenway scored 11 and Al-Amir Dawes and David Collins scored 10 apiece as the Tigers pulled away late and defeated Virginia Tech 63-59 in Littlejohn Coliseum. Virginia Tech had won three in a row and nine out of ten. Clemson has won four in a row and improves to 16-15 overall and 8-12 in the ACC, while Virginia Tech falls to 19-12 overall and 11-9 in league play.

Clemson locked up the 10th seed in Brooklyn's ACC Tournament and will face No. 15 seed NC State in the first round Tuesday at 4:30 pm. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.

Clemson shot 44 percent from the field (21-48), including 8-20 from 3-point range. Virginia Tech was 9-30 from beyond the arc.

The Tigers jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead off of a Hunter Tyson three-pointer and David Collins layup, but Virginia Tech closed to 5-4 after four consecutive free throws at the 14:21 mark in the first half.

After Virginia Tech made its first field goal at the 11:52 mark, the teams traded baskets for much of the next 10 minutes, but Virginia Tech opened up a 26-19 lead with 4:41 to play before intermission after the team got hot from beyond the arc, and Clemson went cold, allowing the Hokies to go on an 11-1 run.

Virginia Tech’s lead was as much as nine points at 33-24 with just over a minute to play before halftime, but a 6-0 run by Clemson that began with an Alex Hemenway layup and ended with a Collins drive and right-handed floater in the lane cut the Hokies lead to 33-30 at the half.

PJ Hall scored the first four points of the second half as the Tigers took a 34-33 lead early. The teams traded big basket after big basket through much of the first eight minutes of the second half, and Tech led 44-43 when Alex Hemenway hit a 3-pointer from the wing to make it 46-44 Tigers with just over 12 minutes to play. Two minutes later, Ian Schieffelin completed a 7-0 Tiger run with a short jumper and Clemson held a 50-44 lead at the ten-minute mark.

However, Clemson then went 6:11 without a field goal – getting just four free throws during that span – and Virginia Tech tied the game at 54-54 with just over four minutes to play. Hall ended that run with a putback off of his own miss, and the Tigers led 56-54 as the game entered the final 3 ½ minutes.

The teams then battled over the next three minutes – Nick Honor’s jumper put Clemson ahead 60-57 with 2:30 to play, but Tech added two free throws to make it a one-point game at 60-59 with 44 seconds to play. Hunter Tyson hit a short jumper with 32 seconds remaining to make it 62-59, and Tech then missed two 3-pointers on the other end. Collins grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 10 seconds to play.

Tech had to commit two fouls to put the Tigers in the bonus, and the second one put Chase Hunter at the line 8.4 seconds remaining. Hunter drilled the first and missed the second, but the Hokies were unable to score and the clock ran out on the regular season.