By Kaila Burns-Heffner.

Clemson redeemed itself from its four-point loss against Florida State this past Monday with a last-second, 59-57, victory over Wake Forest on Saturday. The matchup brought adversity to the Tigers, but Clemson was able to prevail with a Josh Smith putback on a Rod Hall missed shot with 0.5 seconds to play.

The victory was a difficult fight for the Tigers, who were down by 12 points with 16:35 left in the second half. At that point Wake Forest was ahead, 40-28.

“This is one of those games where you’re just kind of climbing a mountain the whole day, we’re down 11-2 and my message to the guys was, we probably need some adversity and we need to try to find a way to fight through a game at home where it hasn’t been easy,” said Clemson head coach Brad Brownell.

Wake Forest (9-11, 1-6 ACC) was in the lead for 37 minutes and 10 seconds of the game. Clemson was only able to pull ahead of the Demon Deacons twice in the last 58 seconds. Those last few seconds, however, were enough to change the outcome.

The Tigers (11-8, 3-4 ACC) began to close the 12-point gap when momentum picked up from a shot made by freshman Donte Grantham. After that, Jordan Roper stole the ball from the Demon Deacons and drove it back for a dunk. Grantham followed with a three-pointer on the next possession.

Clemson’s willingness to fight despite Wake Forest’s strong lead made all the difference.

“The guys just kept fighting and we found a way to make a couple good plays and really kind of steal the win in some ways, ” said Brownell

Brownell mentioned he was continuously telling his players that they were still in the game, and that they could come back and get the win. He said while Wake Forest had a big lead, though it was a lead that was slowly getting smaller toward the end. All his players needed was the encouragement that they could fight through it and find a way to get a win.

“That was kind of my message throughout, let’s not let missed shots, missed free throws affect how we’re guarding, because we’re in the game,” said Brownell.

“Today was more about encouraging them through the process. The game was hard enough for them; they just needed encouragement today as a coach,” he continued. “I just kept tried to keep them upbeat and their spirits up, and fortunately, we just made enough plays at the end to win it.”

The Tigers were able to tie the game up when Roper was sent to the free throw line with 1:33 left in the game and made both shots. Grantham put Clemson in front for the first time with another free throw with 58.6 seconds to play. Although Wake Forest’s Devin Thomas tied the game with a free throw of his own, Clemson’s Rod Hall was able to steal the ball back following Thomas’ miss on his second shot. Hall attempted a layup with two seconds left in the game, and Josh Smith rebounded it and scored the winning basket.

Clemson showed it was able to fight through a difficult game, which is needed after its loss to Florida State. The Tigers now have some confidence going into their game against NC State on Wednesday.

“You need to have experiences where its hard for you and you don’t score as well and maybe you win it with your defense, like we kind of did today and do some things at the end of a game to win the game,” Brownell said. “That is just good for experiences moving forward.”