Clemson Tigers Unable to Overcome Slow Start in Loss to Notre Dame

The Clemson Tigers lost their second straight game on Sunday, falling 67-58 to the third-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C.

With the loss, the Tigers move to 10-7 overall with a 3-3 conference record. They are now ninth in the ACC standings.

It's not an ideal start to ACC action, but head coach Shawn Poppie is still doing fine in his first season. The three ACC wins wins already still matches or is better than the program had in five of the last 10 seasons and there is still two-thirds of the league slate to go.

ESPN's Bracketology had the Tigers as the first team out for the NCAA tournament before this matchup, so the loss leaves them with more work to do if they want to climb back into the conversation.

This game was a close matchup in the second half, but Clemson got off to such a poor of a start it was too much to overcome. Clemson was down by eight points after the first half, but was only outscored by one point in the second half.

The Tigers were not efficient day from the field as Clemson shot just 21-of-62 on its field goals, which was just 34%. They were worse from deep, making just 4-of-20 attempts.

Had the Tigers shot their season average from the floor (44.6%), the game could have been much more manageable. Clemson's difficulties from the arc, where it is one of the best shooting teams in the country, hurt more.

Senior guard, and Alabama Crimson Tide transfer Loyal McQueen had 14 points, a bit of a bounce-back from her ineffective night against Virginia. But she shot just 6-of-20 from the field. She also had a rebound and two assists to five turnovers. She clearly had a tough time with the Irish defense.

The Tigers will try to get back into the win column on Thursday when they travel to take on the Florida State Seminoles.