Florida State led Clemson 57-37 with 9:09 to go in their second round game in the 2015 ACC Tournament. The Tigers had scored 11 points in 11 minutes of the second half. It was clearly time to warm up the bus. Didn’t even look likely that Clemson would get to 57 by game’s end.
Now you know that Clemson had a three in the final seconds to tie it and send the game to overtime.
FSU held on to win, 76-73, but you can do the math yourself and see that the same Clemson team that scored 37 points in the first 31 minutes scored 36 in the final nine.
How?
Pressure: Clemson coach Brad Brownell switched from his half-court man-to-man to put three-quarter and full-court pressure on Florida State. This led to some early easy Seminole baskets, but it also got FSU out of the rhythm it had established offensively.
The pressure also created more possessions in the game. The teams were at 47 possessions each at the under-eight second-half timeout, an average of about 1.4 possessions per minute per team. Each had 20 in the last seven minutes and change, roughly 2.5 possessions per minute per team.
More pressure: Florida State let itself get rattled late, clearly. The margin was still 12 at 73-61 with 1:19 to go. After a Rod Hall three made it 73-64 with 1:02 left, FSU had a turnover, a turnover, a 1-of-2 trip to the line, a 1-of-2 trip to the line, another turnover, and another 1-of-2 trip to the line.
That’s 3-of-6 from the line with three turnovers. Clemson came up empty on three possessions of its own, and still had two chances in the final 12 seconds to send the game to OT.
That would seem to be hard to do.
– Column by Chris Graham
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