Wake Forest University
9-9,2-6ACC
Clemson
10-8,4-4ACC
Clemson Edges Wake Forest, 71-68
1/21/2020 10:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball
CLEMSON, S.C. - Clemson used a second-half rally to edge Wake Forest 71-68 Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum. The Deacs fell to 9-9 overall and 2-6 in the ACC with the loss, while the Tigers improved to 10-8 overall and 4-4 in the conference.
Andrien White scored a season-high 22 points, his first 20-point game as a Deacon, and matched a season-high with six rebounds to lead Wake Forest. Olivier Sarr had 16 points and 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season while Brandon Childress added 14 points and six assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The opening eight minutes saw the teams trading the lead back and forth before the Deacs went on a 9-0 run to take a 27-17 lead with 7:30 to play in the opening half. Wake Forest held the lead the rest of the half, taking a 37-31 lead into halftime. White scored 12 first-half points to lead Wake, while Sarr had 10 points and six rebounds.in the opening period.
Wake Forest pushed the advantage to eight at 47-39 before a 10-2 Clemson tied the game at 49-49. The Tigers took their first second-half lead when a 9-0 run gave them a 60-56 lead with just under five minutes to play. Clemson held a 67-61 lead with under a minute to play before a White three cut the lead in half at 34.1. The Deacs forced a turnover and got the ball back with under 30 seconds left. A missed 3-point attempt from Ismael Massoud was rebounded by Clemson and the Tigers sealed the win with free throws late.
NOTEWORTHY
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Andrien White had his first 20-point game since scoring 28 for Charlotte against FIU on March 1, 2018
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Olivier Sarr had his 13th double figure scoring game of the season, including his 12th double figure performance in the last 13 games
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Sarr scored in double figures in the first half for the third straight game
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Chaundee Brown, the Deacs' second leading scorer and rebounder missed his fifth consecutive game due to a lower leg injury
QUOTABLE
"Obviously for us, we didn't do enough to come away with the win," head coach Danny Manning said. "We did some good things in the first half to go into halftime with a lead, but we didn't continue to press the issue. We only had four guys get to the free throw line, usually we have anywhere from six to seven. I thought we handled their pressure fairly well, we only had nine turnovers, but we only had six assist as a team."
UP NEXT
Wake Forest returns home to host reigning NCAA Champion Virginia on Sunday. Game time at LJVM Coliseum is noon and the game will air on ACC Network. The game is the first part of a doubleheader, with the Wake Forest women's team hosting Syracuse at 4 p.m.
