Dawes's Late Layup Beats FSU, Completes Trilogy
CLEMSON — Clemson pulled off the trilogy.
After knocking off two top-10 opponents in Duke and Louisville at home already this season, Brad Brownell and the Tigers edged No. 6 Florida State 70-69 on Saturday at a packed Littlejohn Coliseum.
Al-Amir Dawes went the length of the court after an FSU make and made a layup with one second remaining to give Clemson the victory.
"In my head, I was just like, 'Get it and go and the outcome is going to be the outcome,' and that's what happened," Dawes said. "I was very excited."
The Tigers, who still have work to do to make a postseason tournament beyond the ACC's, improved to 15-13 overall and 9-9 in conference play while ending a four-game winning streak for Florida State (24-5, 14-4).
"Whenever we come (to Littlejohn), we have a little bit more juice, a little bit more excitement when we're playing these top teams and I think it shows," John Newman said.
Dawes and Newman scored 18 points each to lead the Tigers who drew six charges on defense. It's the most in a single game since 1987 and tied for fourth most in school history.
"That just speaks to the effort our players played with and intelligence," Brownell said. "Those are incredibly intelligent plays, unselfish plays. Our guys played great today."
Clemson trailed 39-32 at halftime, and it turned into a 10-point deficit very early in the second half, but the Tigers got the fans into the game with a 12-2 run that tied the game at 44-all with 14:24 left to play. Clemson took its first lead since the 18:01 mark of the first half on a 3-pointer by Dawes.
FSU would then build a five-point lead, but Clemson would fight back and eventually take a 65-63 lead with 1:43 remaining.
Newman and Clyde Trapp would combine for a layup and a free throw to put Clemson up 68-65 with 32 seconds left.
Trent Forrest got the Seminoles within a point with 23 seconds to play, and after an inadvertent whistle gave Florida State the ball on the possession arrow, Forrest made a shot to put FSU up nine seconds left, but it was just enough time left for Dawes to lay the ball off the glass and into the rim with one second remaining.
"I was just screaming, 'Get to the basket, get to the basket, get to the basket,'" Brownell said. "I said it three times because he's been known to stop and shoot a 3 or shoot a pull-up or something. In the open court like that, that's our best chance to try to get to the rim against their kind of talent."
FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said it was his team's inability to contain dribblers on the defensive end and Clemson's ability to draw charges when the Seminoles had the ball as to why his team couldn't capitalize off of big midweek win.
“That would be disrespectful to Clemson to try to come up with something that this has anything to do with Louisville," Hamilton said.
Clemson plays its final road game of the regular season at Virginia Tech on Wednesday 7 p.m., but it'll have some time to enjoy the three-peat in Littlejohn.
"Obviously a fantastic game. Just happy for my players," Brownell said. "I thought our guys made some big-time plays. We didn't play as well defensively in the first half. Credit Florida State. They made some shots, but we hung in there offensively. In the second half we guarded better."