Coach Brad Brownell admits his first-half strategy faltered against Duke, costing Clemson crucial momentum in their ACC Tournament semifinal loss.
In the first half of the ACC Tournament semifinal on Friday night, Clemson dug themselves a hole they couldn't get out of.
Despite winning the second half 39-32, the Tigers fell to No. 1 Duke in front of a crowd of 17,711 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
A shorthanded Duke (minus center Patrick Ngongba II and point guard Caleb Foster) dominated the first half, taking a 41-22 lead into halftime.
The Blue Devils finished with shooting 46 percent from the field to Clemson's 33 percent. Duke outrebounded the Tigers 41-27 and won the turnover battle 11-6.
RJ Godfrey led Clemson with 18 points and six rebounds to go along with one assist.
During his postgame news conference, Clemson head coach Brad Brownell took responsibility for coming up with a poor plan for the first half.
"I told my team some of that is on me," he said, via USA Today. "I don't think that we had the best plan in place initially and didn't do enough to help them in the first half. I thought we regrouped at halftime and played better, but Duke is very good...
"We've done a decent job defensively but not good enough offense to help us. There's just too much pressure on us. Obviously, the Boozer brothers hurt us today."
Clemson didn't have any answer for the start-freshman Cameron Boozer, who scored a game-high 24 points and recorded 14 rebounds. Cayden Boozer added 16 points and three rebounds.
Brownell isn't taking the loss well.
"Yeah, I'm not going to get into game plan stuff, but I need to do a better job of helping my players," Brownell said.
"When we don't play well, it starts with me. I didn't do a good enough job on either end of the floor. I won't sleep very well tonight because of it."
With the loss, Clemson dropped to 24-10 and 12-6 in conference play. The Tigers will find out where they land in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday.
Clemson should feel good about their prospects for Sunday.
Before losing to Duke, the Tigers had a three-game winning streak and won two ACC Tournament games, including an 80-79 win over No. 19 North Carolina on Thursday night.