By Will Vandervort

In the days following the loss to Boston College, Jordan Roper approached head coach Brad Brownell to figure out exactly what he did wrong in Clemson’s 75-68 loss in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

From an offensive standpoint, the freshman had one of his better games of the season. He scored 11 points, the first time he reached double figures in ACC play. He connected on four of 10 shots, including three of seven three-pointers. He also grabbed two rebounds, added an assist and had a steal.

But Roper wasn’t happy with his play. He missed on a dunk and too many times he was victimized on defense, part of the reason why the Eagles shot 55 percent from behind the arc.

“I talked to Coach Brownell about the game, and we both agreed I experienced the worst and the best parts of that game,” the 5-foot-11 guard said Wednesday. “There were times defensively where I was awful and then offensively, I was making things happen.”

The good news for the Tigers is a lot of the good things happened at the end of the game when Clemson went on an 18-2 run to erase what was a 20-point deficit at one point in the second half. Roper hit all three of his three-pointers during that run, saying it was a stretch that can go a long way in helping him improve as a basketball player and as a scorer.

“As it pertains to my confidence going forward, I think it can help,” he said. “It shows that I can make things happen when plays need to be made. I think that is what I can do and that’s why I’m here.”

Brownell loves Roper’s eagerness to put up a shot and not be afraid.

“He made some tough shots. He made some big-time shots. He was aggressive,” the Clemson coach said. “He has a mentality to score. When we talked about him at the beginning of the year and when we signed him, that’s one of the things I liked about him. He has the mentality to score.

“We need a few more guys with the confidence to go make plays and you have to be good enough to make them. He was good that way.”

But Brownell pointed out, as Roper knew, he also had a few defensive breakdowns which negated anything he did on offense.

“He gave up a back cut, and obviously there was the dunk he missed, and a couple of other defensive plays,” Brownell said. “K.J. (McDaniels) and Jordan have to get better defensively. They both were exploited in the game at times.

“That’s a problem when your team is struggling to score, especially early for us. K.J. was struggling defensively and gave up a bunch of shots. Everybody sees blocks and all of those things, but you don’t see routine defensive errors that result in threes. Everyone else is doing their job, four guys are doing their job and one guy is not. That’s a problem.”

The good news is it is a problem that can be fixed, but it is one that has to be fixed now.

“Those are things that those guys have to work on because they are two guys that can score for us,” Brownell said.

Clemson will play at Virginia Thursday night on ESPN2 starting at 7:02 p.m.