Sean McNeil scored a team-high 15 points and led a second-half surge as West Virginia defeated Clemson 66-59 to claim third place in the Shriners Children’s Charleston (S.C.) Classic on Sunday night.
Taz Sherman scored 12 points, and the Mountaineers (4-1) used a 10-0 run to take control down the stretch.
Al-Amir Dawes scored a game-high 18 points and Nick Honor and PJ Hall added 10 each to lead the Tigers (4-2), whose reserves got outscored 18-8 by the Mountaineers’ bench.
West Virginia held a one-point halftime lead, and the lead changed hands five times early in the second half.
Hunter Tyson’s layup started an 11-0 run that gave Clemson a 49-39 lead. Dimon Carrigan’s tip-in stopped the run, and McNeil added a jumper that pulled the Mountaineers within six points.
The Tigers increased the lead to nine points before McNeil’s layup cut the lead to 52-47. Naz Bohannon made a layup for Clemson, but McNeil answered with a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 54-50.
Bohannon made another layup, but McNeil had two baskets during a 10-0 run that gave West Virginia a 60-56 lead with about two minutes left.
The Tigers went scoreless for five minutes before Bohannon made a free throw. Malik Curry answered with a layup, but Bohannon made two free throws to cut the Mountaineers’ lead to 64-59 with 16 seconds left.
McNeil made two free throws to complete the scoring.
In the first half, Honor and Dawes scored five points each as Clemson took a 10-2 lead.
The Tigers led by eight three more times before the Mountaineers made a run. Gabe Osabuohein’s 3-point play started an 8-0 run that gave West Virginia a 20-19 lead.
The score was tied four times, and the lead changed hands six times before Curry’s basket gave the Mountaineers a 35-32 lead.
Hall’s layup made it 35-34 West Virginia at halftime.
–Field Level Media
