Clemson struggles late in 1-point loss at Florida State

CLEMSON — In what has become a theme for this year’s Clemson team, the Tigers faltered late in a close loss.

Florida State outscored Clemson 5-0 in the final 52 seconds to escape with an 81-80 win over Clemson Tuesday night in Tallahassee.

Sophomore star PJ Hall scored a career-high 28 points, but it wasn’t enough as Alex Hemenway’s open 3-point attempt fell short at the buzzer. The loss was Clemson’s fifth straight, and the Tigers are now 2-9 in their last 11 games.

“A heartbreaking loss tonight. I feel awful for my team. I thought we competed exceptionally hard,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “PJ was great for us, but obviously this one stings. I’m disappointed with the way the game was officiated down the stretch. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.”

The Tigers drew up a play to get the ball to Hall with 4 seconds left, but Clemson was forced to call timeout after Hall was unable to shake free.

Clemson ended up getting the ball to Hall after the timeout. He was doubled and made a nice pass to Hemenway, who was wide open but missed the shot.

“We felt like he was held a little bit making a cut to the basket,” Brownell said of Hall. “We got the ball to our best player in a good area. We had obviously our best shooter coming open. If they’re going to help off him, we felt like we could get an open shot for Alex. … We got it to PJ, they doubled him. He found Alex. Alex got a wide open shot. That’s as good a shot as you’re going to get under the circumstances. He makes it a lot. Unfortunately it was just short. It hit the front of the rim again and didn’t go in.”

This was the second time in a week the Tigers have had a potential game-winning shot come up just short. David Collins had a 3-pointer at the buzzer hit off the front rim last Tuesday against North Carolina.

Moments before Hemenway’s shot, FSU’s RayQuan Evans gave the Seminoles an 81-80 lead with an and-one with 14 seconds remaining. Evans finished the game with 28 points on 7-for-13 shooting.

Clemson trailed by as many as 9 points in the second half before rallying with an 8-0 run to get back in the game. The Tigers led by 4 with a minute left but didn’t score in the final minute.