Clemson Basketball Overcomes Adversity, Defeats Stanford in Gritty Late-Night Win

The Clemson Tigers have won their first two games against their new conference opponent.

Clemson Tigers center Carter Welling tries to hit a close shot in the win over Stanford on Wednesday night. | John Hefti-Imagn Images

No. 20 Clemson men’s basketball begins its two-game away stretch with a win to the Stanford Cardinal, winning in a 68-66 bout at the Maples Pavilion in California. 

Despite a slow, sloppy opening from the Tigers, the bench helped the team finish strong away from home, using strong performances from Nick Davidson and Chase Thompson to fuel the team’s third-straight win. 

In his home state, Davidson put Clemson (19-4, 9-1 ACC)  up two with two key free throws with 23 seconds remaining to steal a Quad 2 win away from the Cardinal (14-9, 3-7 ACC). He finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, adding a block. 

Head coach Brad Brownell’s team was in a late-night dogfight, trading blows with Stanford in a game that saw eight lead changes throughout its duration. While being down, Clemson used an 8-0 run to grow a lead as much as seven with 9:26 to go. Then, the Cardinal hit four straight shots to erase the push. 

Down the stretch, Clemson’s defense clamped down on star guard Ebuka Okorie. He made his mark in the first half with 12 points, but would finish with 18 points when the buzzer sounded. Two of those points came in a garbage-time layup.

The Tigers struggled in the first half, especially with shooting the ball. Clemson shot 27% from three in the first 20 minutes and took 11 shots. Long possessions in that frame made every miss more critical as the game went on. 

No player had more than five points going into the tunnel at halftime, and Stanford used a two-point shot to go up at the break. 

Thompson finished with a career-high 10 points and three rebounds in extended time on Wednesday night. He played a little more due to RJ Godfrey’s foul trouble in the first half, picking up two quick fouls. Davidson also rolled his ankle in the first half, although he would return and make his mark on the game. 

Redshirt freshman Ace Buckner added 11 points off the bench, including two clutch free throws to put the game at two scores with four seconds to go. 

With the win, the Tigers now pass Virginia in 2017-19 with 13 straight away wins in ACC play. That’s tied for the third-best in the conference’s history. This has helped Clemson remain in second place in the ACC standings, picking up its ninth win of conference play. 

Stanford hung around through the turnover margin, which Clemson struggled with to open the game. The Tigers lost the turnover margin by five and finished the contest with 12 turnovers to only eight assists, the worst ratio so far this season. 

Clemson’s West Coast trip will continue on Saturday night, playing the California Golden Bears at the Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, California. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network.