CLEMSON — Teams that have traveled to the West Coast since California and Stanford joined the ACC last year have not fared well in their return to the East Coast, including No. 20 Clemson.

The Tigers became the 10th victim in the coast-to-coast trip to fall on their return home, as Virginia Tech took them down, 76-66, Wednesday at Littlejohn Coliseum. ACC teams are now 4-10 overall after playing Cal and Stanford on the West Coast.

“The story is not that Clemson came back from the West Coast and whatever,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “We got beat by a good team tonight. They outplayed us. No excuses.”

Jailen Bedford led the Hokies with a game-high 23 points, while Ben Hammond scored 19 points and Tobi Lawal added 12 points to go along with nine rebounds.

“I thought our second-half defense was quite good,” Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said. “We had some really boneheaded plays in the last eight minutes, but fortunately, so did Clemson, which is uncharacteristic of both teams.

“So, to get out of here with a significant road win was what we needed and we needed it bad.”

The Tigers were led by Carter Welling’s 19 points, while Ace Buckner and Nick Davidson added 16 points each. Welling also led the Tigers with six rebounds.

Clemson trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half, thanks in large part to an 8-0 Hokies’ run, which gave them a 52-40 lead with 14:26 go.

The Tigers (20-5, 10-2 ACC) tried to comeback and had several opportunities, but Bedford and the Hokies continued to find ways to keep Clemson at-bay. Bedford’s three from the right corner with 2:08 to play gave them an 8-point lead, 72-64, and all but sealed the win for Virginia Tech.

FREE THROWS

Once again the Tigers struggled to make free throws, which finally came back to bite them. Clemson finished the night 11-for-18 from the foul line.

The Hokies (17-8, 6-6 ACC) on the other hand could not miss. They were a perfect 13-for-13.

40-FIRST HALF POINTS

Virginia Tech scored 40 first half points Wednesday. The 40 points represented the most points a Clemson team has allowed in the first 20 minutes of a game since a 90-84 loss at Alabama on Dec. 3.

The Tigers trailed Virginia Tech 40-33 at the break.

3-POINT DEFENSE

The Hokies connected on 7 of 11 three-pointers in first half. This came after Clemson gave up just four 3-pointers in its win at California last Saturday. Cal connected on just 1 of its last 10 threes and was 4-for-13 overall from long range.

Virginia Tech finished Wednesday’s game 11 of 21 from downtown.

WHERE IS THE DEFENSE?

Virginia Tech made 59 percent of its shots in the opening half. At one point, the Hokies scored on five straight layups. Three of those came on back-door cuts to the basket.

“It was more pick-and-roll stuff,” Brownell said. “One of them is Nick made a terrible pick-and-role defensive play and they got behind us, lobbed it and dunked it. Carter stepped out when he was not supposed to step out and they got behind us and got one up on the rim.

“Those are two that just stick out. Those are mental errors because that was not what we were trying to do. That part is disappointing. But it is a part of basketball and give their guys a lot of credit. They capitalized when we made mistakes.”

The Hokies finished the first half with 16 points in the paint. They finished with 28 points in the paint overall. Clemson had 36 points in the paint.

Virginia Tech shot 52 percent (26-50) from the field overall.

INJURIES

Clemson center Carter Welling went down with an ankle injury with 10:51 to play in the game after following a Jestin Porter miss. Welling went into the training room on the court and came back on the court with a slight limp.

Welling did return with 7:08 to play in the game.

Buckner took himself out of the game at the 4:42 mark, while dragging his right leg back to the Tigers bench. He tried to join his team during a media timeout with 3:51 to play, but he could not make it over to the huddle.

As the training staff worked on the upper part of his leg, the Clemson guard seemed to be in a lot of pain. He did not return, and was on the exercise bike the last three minutes of the game.

UP NEXT

Clemson hits the road on Saturday, as it travels to No. 4 Duke. Tipoff at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., is set for noon.