Canes Drop ACC Opener To Clemson At Home On Saturday

Miami dropped its Atlantic Coast Conference opener and its sixth straight game as they lost to Clemson Saturday afternoon.

Dec 7, 2024; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Clemson Tigers guard Jaeden Zackery (11) drives to the basket past Miami Hurricanes guard Nijel Pack (24) during the first half at Watsco Center. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

University of Miami guard Nijel Pack went 0-for-7 from the field and committed 13 turnovers, as the Miami Hurricanes (3-6, 0-1) dropped a 65-55 decision to the Clemson Tigers (9-1, 1-0) in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.

Miami Final Box Score / Statbroadcast

Clemson Final Box Score / Statbroadcast

'We tried to get him going. I just can't explain it," MIami coach Jim Larranaga said. "It's one of those days. No one likes to lose, but we had very little chemistry today."

Jalil Bethea led Miami with 12 points, while Matthew Cleveland finished with 11. Lynn Kidd led Miami with 8 rebounds. Pack finished with five assists.

Larranaga could not get past the fact his team shot the ball so poorly from behind the arc. The Hurricanes wee 4-for-25 from behind the arc.

"We just need to shoot the 3-ball well," Larranaga said. "We have to shoot the lights out."

Clemson was led by Chase Hunter who had 18 points to lift the Tigers past the Canes. Ian Schieffelin had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

"Chase is an All-ACC performer," Larranaga said. "He is an NBA guy. He defends tough and makes big shots."

Miami did not get off to a quick start, reminiscent of the second half of the game against Arkansas earlier in the week.

Despite being down by as much as 11 in the early minutes of the game, the Canes crawled back to trail 25-24 at the break.

The Canes started the game missing their first eight shots in under four minutes. They went 0-for 4 from behind the arc. Clemson meanwhile led 6-0 1:29 in to the game and connected on their first two 3-point attempts. This was while Miami went 5:48 without a basket.

"The only thing that surprised me is that we would go 4-for-25 from 3," Larranaga said after the game. "Eventually we took a lead in the second half and then it see-sawyed back and forth."

The Tigers hit their first four 3-point attempts to open up an 11 point lead before Miami knew what hit them, Cleveland made Miami's first basket at the 12:29 mark of the first half. That triggered a 14-2 run for Miami in just under 4:25.

"We executed and made a lot of shots down the stretch, which obviously helped," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "We made some big shots in the last four minutes,"

Miami then went on a 10-0 run with 2:24 to play in the half. Lynn Kidd gave Miami it's first lead of the game at 22-20 with 3:32 to play in the half.

"It was close, but close does not count," Larranaga said. "We have to get our guards rebounding better and we have to shoot the ball better."

Cleveland did not play much in the second half as Larranaga went with more of a combinator of AJ Staton-McCray and Bethea. He should it would give them a better wallop.

Cleveland closed out the first half with nine points off the bench for Miami. Ian Schieffelin led the Tigers with 11.

"This is an ACC game, it's going to be hard," Brownell said. "You have to find a way to make winning plays at the end. Our guards missed some open shots and our bigs had to make some plays and they did.'

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