Clemson bought itself some extra time, but the Tigers’ stay at the ACC Tournament – and perhaps their season – ultimately came to a painful end.

Darius Maddox sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and the Tigers bowed out of the tournament with a 76-75 overtime loss to Virginia Tech on Wednesday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. PJ Hall scored 10 of his 16 points after halftime while Chase Hunter added 13 points for the Tigers, who rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second half to give themselves a chance to extend their longest winning streak of the season.

“Obviously a brutal ending,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell. “Incredibly proud of the way our guys competed not just tonight but throughout the season. A lot of adversity.”

The Tigers had won five straight before Wednesday’s loss, a game Clemson led 75-73 with 7.6 seconds left in extra time after ending regulation on an 18-7 run to force it. Hall and Al-Amir Dawes made 4 of 6 free throws in the final 1:19 of overtime to leave Clemson with a two-point lead before Maddox dribbled up the floor and sank the winning 3 from the wing as the final seconds ticked away.

“Luckier than hell,” Tech coach Mike Young said.

Tech (20-12) advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinals, where the Hokies will play against No. 2 seed Notre Dame. As for Clemson (17-16), which sits one game above .500, the Tigers will wait to see if they get an invite to the National Invitation Tournament.

“I’d talk to my players, but I would think, yes, that would be something that we would want to do,” Brownell said of potentially playing in the NIT.

Tech (20-12) shot 47.3% from the field and led 46-32 early in the second half. Things appeared to get even more bleak for Clemson when Hall’s left foot – the same one that’s given Clemson’s leading scorer issues all season – was rolled up on after getting tangled up with Tech’s Keve Aluma while going for a rebound less than a minute after halftime.

Hall left the game with just six points and three boards at that point, and the Hokies’ advantage was still double digits with 7:17 remaining. But Hall returned midway through the second half and fought through visible pain to help Clemson make a late charge.

The Tigers, who also got 12 points apiece from Hunter Tyson and David Collins, held Tech without a basket for more than 6 minutes and used a 14-2 run to take a 62-61 lead on Nick Honor’s 3 with 1:09 remaining. Hunter Cattoor missed a 3 on Tech’s next possession out of a timeout, but Justyn Mutts’ putback put the Hokies back in front with 49 ticks left. Honor got the ball to Hall near the elbow on Clemson’s next possession, and the Tigers’ sophomore big drove in before dropping the ball off along the baseline to Tyson, whose layup put Clemson back in front with 35.3 seconds left.

Tech then got the ball to senior guard Storm Murphy, who had a scoreless second half going after scoring 12 in the first until he knocked down a 3 to give the Hokies a 66-64 lead with 18.9 ticks left. Clemson went back to Hall on its next possession, and he put in a jump hook with 7 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

“He was bugging me to put him back in,” Brownell said. “He tried to tough it out. He wasn’t moving quite as well, but his performance at the end and the baskets he made down the stretch were big-time.”

Tech missed four of its first six shots in the extra frame. Hall sank a pair of free throws to give Clemson a 73-72 lead with 1:19 left, but a miss each from the charity stripe by Hall and Dawes in the waning seconds left the Tigers with just a two-point lead before Tech’s final possession.

Maddox hadn’t played in overtime until Young called a timeout and put him in the game. But Maddox took the inbound pass and drove the length of the floor before rising up over Dawes, who was retreating, to stick the winning shot.

“Obviously we talked about no 3s,” Brownell said. “If they get by us and make a 2, that’s fine. But we don’t want any 3s. … At the end of the day, they just threw it in to a guy who dribbled up and shot it over our guy. We needed to be a little tighter. We shouldn’t have kept backing up, and we kind of let him walk into one. To his credit, he made it.”

Said Tyson, “We came here and had a pretty good plan, and we thought we were going to be able to go execute it. Obviously heartbreaking to see that shot go in.”

Photo courtesy of the USA Today Sports Network

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