CLEMSON – Demeara Hinds took a deep breath, dribbled twice, and knocked down some of the most important free throws of her life to send the Clemson to overtime against her former team, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the Tigers’ 78-71 win over Wake Forest.
After trailing by as many as 10 in the fourth quarter and only leading for less than 50 seconds in all of regulation, the Tigers stormed back to tie the game thanks to perfect 6-of-6 free throw shooting in the last two minutes.
Mia Moore knocked down two overtime three-pointers and two free throws to outscore Wake 11-6 in the first extra period of the season for the Tigers. In that same period, Clemson’s defense forced four turnovers.
While the Tigers (13-6, 4-3 ACC) walked off the floor in a high-scoring final, it started slow for Shawn Poppie’s squad.
The Demon Deacons (12-8, 2-6 ACC) got off to a quick 5-0 lead off of a layup and second-chance three-pointer. Over a back-and-forth few minutes, Clemson tied it up 10-10 with 3:23 to play in the first quarter.
Senior guard Rachael Rose accounted for half of those points, with an early triple and a layup.
Clemson trailed only 12-10 after the first quarter, while shooting only 23.5 percent from the floor on 4-of-17 shooting. Wake Forest was not significantly better early, shooting only 31.3 percent form the floor.
While both teams started slow in the first period, both offenses woke up in the second. Wake knocked down five three-pointers on perfect 5-of-5 shooting to get up to as much as a seven-point lead. Clemson, led by eight points from Demeara Hinds, a former Demon Deacon, put up a 21-point quarter.
The Tigers entered the locker room at halftime down 37-31, and their offensive woes followed them into the third quarter. Wake extended its lead 46-36 as Clemson went on a three-minute scoring drought to open the second half that ended with a Rusne Augustinaite triple, her third of the afternoon.
Two minutes later, she drained her fourth from beyond-the-arc, this time in front of the Tigers’ bench, cutting the lead to four.
Clemson entered the fourth quarter down six points, and failed to cut into the Demon Deacons’ lead, early as they shot 1-of-6 from the field and then remained scoreless for over two minutes.
After being down as many as 10 in the early fourth period, however, the Tigers generated five Wake turnovers and went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead 60-57 with three minutes to play.
Clemson tied it up at 61 with 1:32 to play off of made free throws and a Raven Thompson layup. After a final regulation basket from Wake Forest, Hinds was fouled and knocked down both free throws, sending the game to overtime.
Rose finished as Clemson’s leading scorer with a season-high 20 points, while Augustinaite notched 16 points on 4-of-5 three-point shooting. Hinds finished with a team-high nine rebounds and Mia Moore finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.
Clemson scored 20 points off of turnovers and 35 bench points to Wake’s 18. With the win, Clemson improves to 7-1 at home. They currently sit as the No. 40 team in the NET Rankings.
Up Next
The Tigers will look to get another ACC win Thursday when they travel to Blacksburg to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. at Cassell Coliseum.
—Photo courtesy of Clemson Athletics Communications