Clemson basketball loses at Virginia Tech to drop its third consecutive game in ACC play
Clemson basketball’s futility at Virginia Tech continued Wednesday night.
Sean Pedulla scored a career-high 32 points and Tyler Nickel added a career-high 24 points off the bench as the Hokies defeated Clemson 87-72 at Cassell Coliseum.
Clemson is 7-14 all-time in Blacksburg, Virginia, and the Tigers are 2-8 in Cassell Coliseum under coach Brad Brownell.
After winning 11 of its first 12 games – the program’s best season-opening start since 2011 – Clemson (11-4, 1-3 in ACC) has lost three in a row.
Ian Schieffelin led four Tigers in double figures with 15 points while Chauncey Wiggins and Joseph Girard III added 12 apiece and PJ Hall 11.
Virginia Tech (10-5, 2-2) snapped a two-game losing streak by improving to 8-0 at home this season.
Tigers regain 3-point shooting touch, sort of
Clemson, which made just one of 18 shots from 3-point range in its loss to North Carolina on Saturday, showed improvement against Virginia Tech.
Clemson was 9-for-26 from 3-point distance against the Hokies, but the Tigers’ 34.6% success rate paled in comparison to Virginia Tech, which shot 54.2% (13-for-24) from beyond the arc.
Pedulla and Nickel combined to make 11 of 17 3-pointers.
Junior Ian Schieffelin continues to shine for Tigers
Schieffelin has been steady of late, and that continued against the Hokies. He paced Clemson in both scoring (15) and rebounds (8) and continues to show why Brownell says people he meets on the street ask him about Schieffelin and his development.
Schieffelin, a junior, has scored 42 points in the Tigers’ past three games and shot 65% from the field over that span. He also has 30 rebounds in the past three games.
Clemson eager to return to Littlejohn Coliseum
After a challenging start to the ACC season in which the Tigers played on the road for three of their first four games, Clemson will be plenty eager to return home.
Four of the next six games are at Littlejohn Coliseum, where Clemson is 6-1 this season and 15-3 over the past two years. First up is a game against Boston College on Saturday, followed by a game against Georgia Tech next Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson basketball goes cold against red-hot Virginia Tech
