Another night, another disappointing loss for Clemson hoops

CLEMSON — You could see the beginning - and the end – coming from a mile away.

Down 14 and looking sluggish, you knew Clemson had a rally in it.

And if you’ve watched this team long enough, you knew the rally would come – and then fall agonizingly short.

It happened again here Tuesday. Andre Young’s 3-pointer caromed off the left corner of the rim as time ran out, and Maryland escaped Littlejohn Coliseum with a 64-62 win over Clemson.

Clemson lost its third straight game and fell to 11-12, 3-6 in ACC play; Maryland improved to 14-9, 4-5.

Brownell: "Can't give up on this season"

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Guard Terrell Stoglin led the Terps with 27 points; he’s the ACC’s leading scorer and No.5 nationally.

Of Clemson’s 12 losses, eight have come by five points or less, including five in ACC play.

The last three defeats have come by a total of eight points.

“Déjà vu’s about what comes to mind, certainly,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “A disheartening loss, this one hurts more because it was at home. We didn’t make shots. You’ve got to make shots at the end of the day.”

For the third straight game, the Tigers erased most of a double-digit second-half deficit, only to squander a chance to tie or take the lead late.

Tuesday, Maryland held a 53-39 lead with 7:45 left before Clemson finally found an outside groove.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Young and junior forward Milton Jennings fueled an 8-0 run that cut the Terps’ lead to six points with 5:11 left.

Just as they’d done three days earlier in Blacksburg, the Tigers claimed momentum.

A pair of Devin Booker free throws cut the lead to 59-58 with 1:08 left, and Maryland called timeout to regroup.

Freshman forward Alex Len’s post move extended the lead back to three points. Booker missed a pair of free throws, but Len and Alex Faust missed close looks, giving the Tigers life.

With 10.7 seconds left, Young was hacked by Pe’Shon Howard in mid-air just beyond the 3-point line; after review, officials awarded him three free throws.

Young entered the game as the ACC’s best free-throw shooter – 88.4 percent.

So, of course, the first shot rimmed out, and he clanked the second before making the third.

“I felt comfortable,” he said. “I thought I was going to make all three. The first one went down and out, the second one hit part of the rim. It felt good, it just didn’t go down.”

Following two more Maryland free throws, Jennings gave the Tigers a pulse by nailing a 3-pointer from the top of the key. After Sean Mosley made one of two free throws with two seconds left, Jennings grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 1.7 seconds left on the clock.

His three-quarter-court heave, intended for Young, found Mosley’s hands – but Mosley was out of bounds, giving Clemson one more chance.

Officials ruled that he’d stepped out of bounds before gaining possession, so the ball went back upcourt.

This time, Young took two steps and fired, but the ball clanged off the corner of the rim.

“I guess it’s as good as you can hope for a halfcourt heave,” he said. “Once I put it up there, saw it had a chance and it was going to hit the rim, and just hoping it was going to go in. It didn’t.”

Another night. Another close loss. These ones, Brownell said, hurt more than blowouts.

“When you’re putting as much time and energy in as we are, come up short like this, it tests you,” he said. “It’s easier when you get beat by 18 or 20 and the other team plays great, you play bad. Sometimes when you’re coaching, you just burn the tap and move on. It happens.

“To our kids’ credit, that hasn’t happened in the league. We’ve been grinding, battling, been on the cliff and we’ve been pushed off the edge in all of our games.”

Booker – who had 14 points and 12 rebounds – admitted defeats like these get in your head.

“It’s all mental, all in our head,” he said. “ As long as we keep positive, we’ll be OK.”

A second-half lapse spelled doom for the Tigers. Down 32-30, they allowed Maryland to go on a 16-4 run that built a 48-34 hole with 11:25 to play.

“For anybody, double digits is tough to come out of,” Booker said. “Any team, whether you’re good or bad. It’s hard for us. We always try to pull through in the last minute and it’s always too late. It shows on the court.”

Brownell’s message was basic: don’t give up.

“You can’t give up on the season,” he said. “We’re playing well enough, competitively enough, this could turn our way. The worm could turn, we could win three in a row. Things are going good, and right now we’re catching the bad end of it. It’s a test of character to see how we respond.”