Though they were disappointed they did not make it into the NCAA Tournament, Clemson players Jaron Blossomgame and Shelton Mitchell said they wanted to use the National Invitational Tournament as an opportunity to not only keep the season going, but to have some fun as well.

In the first 20 minutes of Tuesday first-round game in the NIT, the Tigers were having a lot of fun, but led by Sherron Dorsey-Walker and Martez Walker, Oakland rallied from a 20-point deficit in the second half to end the Tigers’ season with 74-69 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.

“I felt like we were an NCAA Tournament team and we could win games in the NCAA Tournament,” Oakland head coach Greg Kampe said. “We proved that we belonged there tonight.”

The loss ended Clemson’s 12-game home-winning streak in the NIT.

“I just feel bad for our seniors,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “I did not do a good job. I could not get our team to play in the second half the way we needed to play.”

Dorsey-Walker scored 21 points for the Grizzles, while Walker added 23. Clemson was led by Jaron Blossomgame’s game-high 24 points.

“This team has always believed. Even when it got tough, they kept believing they could win the game,” Kampe said. “They could have hung their head and quit, but they did not. I love them now more than ever for that.”

The Golden Grizzles hung tough with Clemson for the first 12 minutes as the Horizon League regular season champions trailed by a point, 23-22, after a Walker three-pointer. From there, the Tigers closed the first half on a 20-2 run to take a commanding 43-24 lead at the break.

The biggest part of the run came in the last two and a half minutes as Clemson got a Blossomgame dunk, a Marcquise Reed three-pointer, two Legend Robertin baskets, including a dunk, and then a Gabe DeVoe three as time expired.

DeVoe’s three came off a screen on an inbounds pass which he caught at the part of the Tiger Paw and launched over two Grizzles.

“I thought we did a lot of really good job with things in the first half,” Brownell said. “We ended it in nice style with a great set play and basket by Gabe, but unfortunately we could not get their energy back up in the second half.”

Clemson lead by as many as 20 points in the second half, 49-29 with 17:36 to play. But led by Dorsey-Walker, who had just four points at halftime, Oakland had a second-half charge as he tied the game with a three-pointer, 61-61, from the left corner with 7:49 to play.

Walker then hit a runner in the lane with 6:46 to play that gave Oakland its first lead since it was 15-13 with 11:52 to play in the opening 20 minutes.

Clemson tied the game with a Blossomgame bucket, but Walker hit a layup, Dorsey-Walker followed with a free throw and then Walker made desperation three to extend the Grizzles’ lead to 69-63 with 3:29 to play.

Trailing, 71-67, the Tigers had an opportunity to close the gap to two points with 26.9 seconds to play, but after a Blossomgame miss, Reed rebounded and drove the lane for a layup, but as the ball spun around the cylinder Sidy Djitte tipped it into the hoop, but he was called for goaltending and the basket was waved off.

Clemson finished the season with 17-16 record.