PROVIDENCE, R.I. — One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out how No. 5 seed Clemson lost, 69-67, to No. 12 seed McNeese State in Thursday’s first round of the Midwest Regional at the Amica Mutual Pavilion.

The Tigers, who finished the season 27-7, lost the game in the first half. They were awful in every aspect in the first 20 minutes.

Clemson turned the basketball over 10 times, including seven in a seven-minute stretch. The Tigers were also dreadful from three-point range, connecting on just 1 of 15 attempts.

It was as ugly of a first half as they have ever played in an NCAA Tournament game, as they trailed 31-13 at the break.

“We picked a tough day to not play our best,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “Certainly, they had a lot to do with that. I didn’t do a very good job with my guys and we weren’t really prepared for the zone to man. Haven’t seen a lot of that this year, maybe a little bit with Stanford and it bothered us.”

Clemson is the second team seeded 5th or better to score 13 points or fewer in a first half of an NCAA Tournament game in the shot clock era (1986). Fifth seeded Wisconsin had 12 points vs. Missouri State in a 1999 first round game.

The Tigers’ 13 first-half points were their fewest in a game since Brownell’s 2013 team scored 10 at Virginia.

Why did Clemson struggle so bad in the first half?

“They were bringing it. They were outrebounding us. They were more physical,” guard Jaeden Zackery said.

The Cowboys (28-6) were also confusing the Tigers at times, as they quickly jumped in and out of zone and man defenses in the middle of set plays.

“It was more the 2-3 (zone) going to man on the second passer and man to 2-3 on the third passer. That kind of threw our offensive game off,” forward Chauncey Wiggins said.

Clemson eventually adjusted and came storming back down the stretch, but it was a little to late. The Tigers rallied from 24 points down with 16:14 to play and cut the lead to two points on Chase Hunter’s layup as time expired.

They connected on 8 of 15 threes in the second half, while Hunter scored all of his game-high 21 points after the 10:02 mark in the second half.

“They were playing good defense, but I think we missed a lot of open shots,” Hunter said. “We had a lot of open looks that we usually make. If a few of those go in, it’s a whole different ball game. So at the end of the day, I think
we got a lot of open looks that we just missed and that’s the game of basketball.”

–photo by Eric Canha / Imagn Images