CLEMSON – Maybe it was Senior Day or it was the 3,218 people in attendance. It could have been the full pep band, pom-poms, or the stuffed tigers given out to fans. Maybe it was simply a will to win.
But whatever the motivation, Clemson’s women’s basketball team found a way to hand No. 9 Duke its first loss in ACC-play Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum, as Hannah Kohn drilled a three-pointer with nine seconds left to lift the Tigers to a 53-51 victory.
After falling 22-8 early in the second quarter, Clemson crawled all the way back to pick up its highest-ranked win in head coach Shawn Poppie’s tenure and its biggest since beating No. 7 Virginia in 2022.
Clemson seniors combined for over 40 points on Senior Day, and forward Demerara Hinds led the way with 13 as the Tigers produced a “program-changing win,” according to Poppie.
The Tigers (19-9, 10-6 ACC) made six three-pointers and forced 17 turnovers in the win.
Clemson opened all scoring early with four points in the paint, but first-quarter success was short lived. Duke answered with a 13-point run to stifle any crowd noise from a near record-breaking crowd Littlejohn.
Duke’s run included three and-one scores, six Clemson fouls, and 10 early points from the 2025 ACC Rookie of the Year Toby Fournier. At the start of the second quarter, Duke led 22-8, with Tigers’ post players Raven Thompson and Demeara Hinds on the bench with two fouls each.
As forward Hadley Periman went to the locker room with an apparent injury, Poppie brought in Morgan Lee, a senior transfer from Marist.
On her senior day, Lee knocked down her first three-pointer of the season to end the Tigers drought, and followed it with a fadeaway jumper for a personal five-point run.
With the Tigers down 24-13, Rusne Augustinaite, Rachael Rose, and Taylor Johnson-Matthews latched on to the momentum Lee provided. Behind three-pointers from Augustinaite and Johnson-Matthews, along with free throws from Rose, Clemson went on a 10-0 run.
As Blue Devils head coach Kara Lawson burned a timeout after a fast break layup from Mia Moore, the Tigers trailed by only one point.
During that stretch defensively, Clemson forced five Duke turnovers and allowed no free throws, outsourcing them 15-4.
Duke answered with two quick baskets to take a 29-23 lead at halftime.
The third quarter was the least lopsided so far, with each team struggling to score early. Augustinaite knocked down her second three-pointer of the afternoon to cut the lead to three, and Demeara Hinds added a basket in the paint, and Duke traded two layups.
However, the Tigers squandered several opportunities to go ahead with five turnovers in the first five minutes of the half, and Fournier scored her 18th point to retake a seven-point lead. Clemson went 0-for-8 field goals mid third quarter until Moore cut the lead with a steal and a layup.
After falling 40-30 in the fourth, Hinds scored two consecutive baskets in the paint while the Tigers held Duke (21-6, 15-1 ACC) scoreless for over two minutes. With 6:29 to play, Johnson-Matthews was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three from the charity stripe to cut the lead to three.
Hinds hit two free throws to cut it to one, the closest margin since quarter two. Moore got the Tigers over the hump with an and-one, taking a 44-43 lead. Johnson-Matthews knocked down her second triple of the night to extend the lead 47-43.
Clemson’s lead was cut to one with a three-point jumper, and Duke took the final one-point lead with a final shot from beyond-the-arc with 9.5 seconds to play.
Kohn nailed her shot and the Tigers got a stop to secure the win. Moore finished with 11 points, Johnson-Matthews had 11, and Hinds had a team-high eight rebounds to get the win.
With a 19-win record, Clemson notches its most wins in a season since 2000-01. The Tigers only had the lead for 5:45 seconds.
FREE THROWS
Clemson made 91 percent of its free throws, shooting 11 of 12 from the line. Hinds, usually a 43.1-percent free throw shooter, knocked down five of six. Four came in the fourth quarter.
INJURIES
Periman seemed to suffer on a hard foul in the second quarter, and Hinds took another hard landing in the third. Both players came out of the game, but Hinds returned in the fourth quarter while Periman did not return. She did come back to sit on the bench.
ALUMNI DAY
Ahead of the game, Clemson honored over 60 women’ s basketball alumni from four decades by name. Former head coach Jim Davis, the program’s winningest leader, was recognized for being admitted to the South Carolina Hall of Fame. Additionally, the late Barbara Kennedy-Dixon was honored for being named to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
BENCH POINTS
The Tigers scored 19 bench points, including eight in the second quarter to Duke’s four.
UP NEXT
The Tigers will now head to the west coast for a two-game road trip, taking on California and Stanford. Clemson will tip off against Cal at 10 p.m. on Thursday at Haas Pavilion. It will mark the Tigers’ second-to-last regular season game.
–photo courtesy of Clemson Athletic Communications