What We Learned After Clemson Basketball's Loss to Georgetown

The Clemson men’s basketball team suffered a difficult loss to the Georgetown Hoyas by a score of 79-74 for the Tigers’ first loss of the season.

Here are the takeaways from Saturday afternoon’s loss from the Capital One Arena.

The bench continues to shine

Clemson’s bench rotation was a major point of emphasis over the first three games, and the rotation made an important impact to help contain the Hoyas throughout the contest.

Two players entered double digits off the bench, Zac Foster and Carter Welling. Welling led the team in scoring with 14 points, while Foster added 11 of his own and recorded another four assists in the loss.

Foster’s progression over the last four games has been getting better with each contest. However, he fell into a frequent trap of losing the ball on entry passes. Georgetown guard KJ Lewis had five steals, with several of those being at the fault of Foster. The true freshman will continue to grow throughout the season and hit key shots.

The Tigers recorded 16 more bench points than the Hoyas in the loss, but the stars shined for Georgetown in the nation’s capital, which led to the win.

Foul trouble was the turning point

Georgetown scored 25 points off of free throws from 32 attempts, being able to consistently get points on the board on Saturday afternoon’s game.

It caused the Tigers to get into foul trouble, having three players with four fouls in the loss. Foster, Welling and Jake Wahlin were all limited with those fouls, while RJ Godfrey and Nick Davidson had three in the game.

Especially down the stretch, where the Hoys shot 17 free throws in the last 20 minutes, it elongated possessions on the defensive end for Clemson. In a physical game, the Tigers found themselves in an uphill battle after Georgetown took the lead at the 15-minute mark in the second half.

It is possible that this can happen with a new-look team, but it’s something that head coach Brad Brownell will look to clean up over the course of the season.

Anybody can step up and score for Clemson

While three players scored double digits for the Tigers this weekend, another three scored eight or more, showing the parity that the team has on the offensive side of the ball.

Four players also hit two three-pointers in the loss, while the team recorded 14 assists in the win. While ball movement wasn’t as effective as in previous games, the ability to get the ball to different weapons will be key going into other important out-of-conference games and ACC play.

The only downside was that the team recorded 10 turnovers, the most so far this season. While it’s understandable for an opponent that is at a higher level, certain plays that flashed the “extra pass” in previous games were used in the wrong ways in the loss.

Clemson will be back in action on Monday night at Littlejohn Coliseum, playing North Alabama to get back on track.