With 65 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of the Clemson Tigers’ second-round ACC Tournament game against Louisville, forward Raven Thompson caught a pass on the baseline and quickly found sharpshooting guard Hannah Kohn on the wing for a three-pointer to even the score. 

One minute later, Kohn bombed another three from the top of the key to send the Tigers to overtime, while Thompson and her team exploded on the sideline. 

Though the Tigers ultimately lost the game, Kohn finished with 14 points on 4 of 6 shooting from beyond the arc, while Thompson cut an early 7-0 lead with five unanswered points of her own. Junior guard Mia Moore finished with 12 points and was the first to jump in the air as Kohn’s shot sliced through the net.

Luckily for Tiger fans, Kohn, Thompson, and Moore will all return for the 2025-’26 season. They will serve as a nucleus for the culture that head coach Shawn Poppie hopes to continue building in his second season at the helm. 

“We got three kids that played quality minutes that are coming back. Those are the first kids that these people out of the portal are reporting to, in a sense,” Poppie told The Clemson Insider at the ACC Spring Meetings earlier this week.

“That locker room, although it’s only three people of quality minutes, it’s three kids that understand our culture. They understand this is how we do things, this is what we do. And then the rest of it is on us as coaches to go make sure we’re putting kids in that locker room that fit.”

Kohn, maybe more than any player on the team, understands Poppie’s culture and coaching style. The Oviedo, Fla., native played her freshman year under Poppie at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and followed him to Clemson ahead of her sophomore season. 

At Chattanooga, Kohn was named to the Southern Conference’s All-Freshman team, and ranked third in the nation in three-point shooting percentage (46.3 percent). She also ranked 15th in the nation with a 64.6 percent effective field goal percentage. 

In his office, Poppie has a canvas of a picture of Kohn and her Chattanooga teammates hugging the coach after winning the SoCon title. For the 2023 Spalding Rookie Coach of the Year, relationships, like the ones showcased in the canvas, are his biggest pitches when asked, “Why Clemson?”.

“When we’re between the lines, we’re competitive and we’re fighting for one another, we’re cheering each other on, and it’s intense,” he said.

“But off the court, we’re laid back and we’re human. We’re relatable to them. We can Facetime Mia Moore at 11:30 at night because it is her birthday, because it’s like a family, all while the numbers speak for themselves.”

Poppie referenced some of these numbers, including starting point guard Loyal McQueen’s increase in her three-point percentage from 34 percent at the mid-major level to 42 percent with the Tigers. Additionally, Clemson made the most threes in program history last season while setting a record for the highest assist-to-turnover ratio.

“I don’t have to try and persuade you, the proof is in the pudding when it comes to development, and some of that’s just how we do things,” Poppie said. “It’s different, it’s unique, all while we create excitement… that style of play, it’s fun, it’s with each other and for each other, but it’s also how we live our daily lives.”

Hopefully, for Clemson fans, the proof will continue to be in the pudding in the Tigers’ success next season.

–photo by Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network