GREENSBORO, N.C. — Trailing by 20 points with 9:09 to play against Florida State on Wednesday, Clemson was on the verge of making one of the more dramatic comebacks in ACC Tournament history. But it fell one inch short.
Rod Hall, playing in perhaps his final game as a Tiger, scored a career-high 25 points and brought the Tigers all the way back, but with 11 seconds to play his game-tying layup went up on the rim and rolled back off.
That’s how close they came.
After the Seminoles’ Phil Cofer made only one of two free throws, the Tigers again had a chance to tie things up, but Gabe DeVoe’s three-pointer fell short with two seconds left as No. 9 FSU hung on to beat the 8th-seeded Tigers, 76-73, in the second round of the ACC Tournament.
Florida State advances to the quarterfinals where it will play top-seed Virginia on Friday. That game is scheduled to tip off at noon.
Clemson (16-15) began its rally following Xavier Rathan-Mayes’ jump shot that gave the Seminoles a 57-37 lead with 9:09 to play. But slowly the Tigers chipped into the lead, though they still trailed by 12 points, 73-61, following two Montay Brandon free throws with 1:19 to go.
First Hall rattled home a three-pointer with 1:01 to play to make it a nine-point game. Following an FSU turnover, Hall found Jaron Blossomgame under the basket to cut the deficit to seven points with 46.9 seconds to go.
Cofer again made just one of two foul shots, which allowed a Demarcus Harrison three-pointer from the left wing to cut the lead to five points, 74-69, with 31.9 seconds to play. Then Cofert fell down trying to inbounds on the ensuing play and the ball rolled right to Blossomgame under the basket who picked it up and layed it in to make the score, 74-71, with 30.8 seconds left.
The Tigers were on a 10-1 run during that 30-second stretch.
Florida State (17-15) upped the lead to four points, 75-71, as Rathan-Mays made one of his two foul shots with 30.3 seconds to go. But Clemson was not done.
Hall drew a foul with 25.2 seconds to play and followed that by making both free throws to cut the lead to 75-73. The senior was a perfect 8-for-8 at the foul line.
On the ensuing inbounds pass, the Seminoles threw the ball away as Brandon’s pass bounced off the face of Devin Bookert with 24 seconds to play.
Clemson head coach Brad Brownell drew up the right play on the Tigers’ following possession and Hall got a good look at the basket, but it rolled up and off the rim ever so slightly, while preserving the Seminoles’ victory.
With the loss Clemson’s season more than likely has come to an end. Most felt the Tigers needed one or two wins in the ACC Tournament to receive an invitation to play in the NIT.
FSU, despite turning the ball over five times and going 3 of 6 from the foul line in the final 79 seconds, advanced to the ACC Quarterfinals for a ninth straight season – the only ACC team to make that claim.
Florida State has now defeated the Tigers five straight times in the tournament and are 3-0 all-time against Clemson at the Greensboro Coliseum. Clemson is 18-62 now all-time in the ACC Tournament.
The Tigers concluded the season with three straight losses and five in their last six games and seven of the last nine.
Hall scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half to lead Clemson’s charge, while Blossomgame finished the afternoon with 14 points and seven rebounds. DeVoe scored 10 points off the bench.
Rathan-Mays led all scorers with 30 points, the first Florida State player to score 30 points in an ACC Tournament game and only the second freshmen in the tournament’s long history to do it.
Early on, the day belonged to Rathan-Mayes as he did anything he wanted to. If the Seminoles needed a three-pointer he was the guy who made it. If the Tigers had him guarded at the perimeter he broke the defense down and made his way to the basket for an easy layup.
Leading, 33-26, at halftime, Rathan-Mayes got an offensive rebound and then assisted Cofer with a three-pointer and then knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to extend the Seminoles’ lead to 11 points.
With the Tigers trailing by 12 points and trying to get back in the game, Rathan-Mayes drained a third three-pointer from the right wing to up FSU’s lead to 50-35 with12:29 to play.
Rathan-Mayes connected on 5 of 9 three-pointers after coming into the game shooting just 27 percent from behind the arc. His jumper with 9:09 to play gave the Seminoles a 20-point lead, 57-37, their biggest of the game.
Florida State shot 46.7 percent from the field in the first half and got 12 points from Rathan-Mayes to build a seven-point lead, 33-26, at the break.
Rathan-Mayes connected on 5 of 11 shots in the opening half, including two from behind the arc. His second one killed Clemson’s momentum after the Tigers fought back to cut the lead to three points. But the freshman drained a jumper in the left corner with 2:02 to play.
Landry Nnoko, who scored six points in the first 20 minutes, had just dunked a Donte Grantham miss that cut the Seminoles lead to 27-24 with 2:26 left in the first half.
FSU used a 10-0 midway through the first half to build a nine-point advantage at 25-16. Clemson went on one of its patented scoring droughts to enhance the Seminoles’ effort. The Tigers went five minutes without a field goal before Nnoko stopped the bleeding with a layup.
Before that, though, Devin Bookert gave FSU the lead at 17-16 with 9:22 to go and then Brandon followed with a jumper of his own. Bookert found the bottom of the bucket once again and Brandon drained two free throws before Jarquez Smith hit a jumper for the 25-15 lead with 6:22 to play.