CHAPEL HILL, NC — Brad Brownell kept telling his Clemson players that they were a better team than their results had shown so far with their NCAA Tournament hopes in doubt.
Taking down No. 3 North Carolina on the road for the second time in program history certainly helps drive that message home.
PJ Hall scored 25 points to go along with the lead with 3:14 remaining as the Tigers stunned the Tar Heels 80-76 on Tuesday night, earning a big win despite blowing a 16-point lead.
“We just hung in there,” Brownell said, adding, “But our guys finished, which was really nice to see.”
Joseph Girard III added 21 points for the Tigers (15-7, 5-6 ACC), including a huge 3-pointer at the 2:09 mark after Hall's basket. The Tigers never trailed, but had to fight until the final seconds to secure the victory against the Tar Heels (18-5, 10-2), who were coming off an emotional rivalry victory against No. 9 Duke three days earlier .
The Tar Heels' last two games after beating Duke are now a home loss to Clemson as a 6.5-point favorite, and a loss to Kansas in the national championship game in April 2022, where UNC blew a 15-point lead. points at half time.
Clemson lost its first 59 games in Chapel Hill before breaking through in 2020 to win in overtime. Now the Tigers have won two of three trips here since then. This comes after the Tigers lost three of five by a combined five points, including a 72-71 loss at Duke with the Tigers one second away from their first win at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1995.
“Keep playing, man,” Hall said of Brownell's message. “Keep playing, believe in ourselves, believe that we are a good team and know that the boy next to you wants to win as much as you do.”
As the game ended, Ian Schieffelin (14 points, 11 rebounds) joined several Tigers players waving goodbye to the UNC crowd as they made their way toward the tunnel.
Clemson has only one other road victory against a top-three AP opponent in program history: January 1976 against No. 2 Maryland.
Armando Bacot had 24 points and 13 rebounds, the 78th double-double of his career, to lead UNC. He inched closer to Ralph Sampson (84) for the second most in ACC history. RJ Davis added 22 points, and with his 17th point of the night (first free throw with 6:30 left), he reached 1,789 career points, passing Michael Jordan for 15th most points in history of North Carolina.
But the Tar Heels shot just 36.9% and made 9 of 27 3-pointers in a bust after beating the Blue Devils.
It was a fitting result, considering how the Tigers ran the action from the front. The Tigers made their first five shots and took a 15-2 lead on Hall's 3-pointer that called a timeout from UNC coach Hubert Davis in less than three and a half minutes.
“It's not about X's and O's, there's nothing from a basketball standpoint that we can talk about until the energy and effort and enthusiasm increases,” Hubert Davis said of that timeout message.
This game represented a huge opportunity for Clemson. Ranked 39th by KenPom and 37th in net, the Tigers went 3-4 in Quadrant 1 games topping a postseason resume, including against 16th-ranked Alabama in November. This was huge, especially since there is only one opportunity left in the first quarter (at Wake Forest on March 9).
The Tar Heels, meanwhile, were without senior reserve Seth Trimble due to an upper-body injury, and most of the starters struggled offensively. Davis needed 22 shots to get his performance and hit a meaningless 3-pointer on UNC's final possession, while fellow starter Cormac Ryan had two points on 1-of-10 shooting.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
