Ace Buckner leads the Tigers with 20 points
CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson University men’s basketball fell to Georgetown 85-78 in Littlejohn Coliseum on Friday night.
The Tigers (3-1) trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half, aided by a 22-2 run by the Hoyas, to take a 47-32 lead into halftime.
Ace Buckner (Dallas, Texas/La Lumiere School (Ind.) led all Clemson players with 20 points and five assists. Cole Certa (Le Roy, Ill./IMG Academy) asserted himself on Friday, scoring a season-high 14 points and grabbing a team-high five rebounds, helping spark the comeback with 11 of his total coming in the second stanza.
Liutauras Lelevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) finished with 10 points and four rebounds. Dallas Thomas (Little Rock, Ark./Parview Magnet) tied his career-high with nine points off the bench; Dylan Faulkner (Calhoun, Ga./Calhoun) also scored nine points and pulled in four rebounds.
Clemson surged back in the second half and used an 8-0 run to cut the Hoyas lead to four with 13:18 remaining in regulation, and then to three with 11:15 to play. A Certa three gave Clemson its second lead with 8:01 remaining at 62-61.
The Tigers shot an improved 55.2% from the field in the second half and made six threes but were outrebounded 33-27 over the full 40 minutes.
Clemson kept the game within reach and trailed by three with 3:18 left in the second half, but an 11-4 run by Georgetown helped close out the contest.
The Tigers return to Littlejohn Coliseum to face The Citadel on Monday, November 16 at 7 p.m. The game will air on ACCN.
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Notes: Clemson dropped to 3-1 on the season … Clemson erased a 19-point lead in the game, the largest deficit they erased since an 18-point deficit to Davidson on Nov. 12, 2023 … Clemson fell to 292-101 in games it shot 40.0 percent or better from three … the Tigers are now 127-28 under Brownell and 45-3 over the last four-plus seasons when shooting 40.0 percent or better … Ace Buckner turned in his third 20-point game of the season … Buckner scored 11 of his 20 points in the second half; he scored 16 of his 26 points against North Dakota in the second half … Cole Certa notched a season-high 14 points on a season-best three made threes.