Tigers top Pittsburgh to bring 6-game losing streak to an end

Clemson spent the latter portion of its week off going through two-a-day practices and mentally hitting the reset button following six straight losses in the meat grinder that is the ACC.

“We understand we’re a good team still,” forward Jaron Blossomgame said. “This conference is crazy. We understand to beat the good teams we just had to sharpen up a little.”

The struggling ones too. Blossomgame scored 25 points on 10 of 14 shooting and Gabe DeVoe hit a pair of late buckets to fend off a late Pittsburgh surge as the Tigers topped the sliding Panthers 67-60 on Saturday.

The Tigers (12-8, 2-6 ACC) won for the first time in 2017 by holding Pitt to just 32 percent (18-of-55) shooting and keeping it together after the Panthers trimmed a 10-point deficit to 60-57 with 4:35 left. DeVoe knocked down a turnaround jumper and then slipped into the lane for a putback.

Clemson’s defense – yes, defense – did the rest. Pitt made just 5 of 28 shots in the second half and missed its final five shots over the final 2:33.

“We were just really locked in defensively,” Blossomgame said. “They were shots that we wanted them to take and fortunately they missed them.”

Jamel Artis and Cameron Johnson led Pitt with 16 points each but the Panthers (12-9, 1-7 ACC) lost their sixth straight. Four days after falling to Louisville at home by 55 points, Pitt responded with better effort but not better results while falling into last place by itself in the nation’s toughest conference.

“It’s amazing that we shot as poorly as we did in the second half and we had a chance to win the game,” coach Kevin Stallings said. “We didn’t play well enough to win but certainly played a lot harder.”

Then again, there was nowhere to go but up.

The Panthers wore alternate all-black uniforms as part of a promotion set up months ago, with Stallings and the entire student section following suit.

The timing could have been better. Stallings’ already difficult first year hit rock bottom on Tuesday night when visiting the visiting Cardinals won by the largest margin of victory by a road team in the 64-year history of the ACC.

Four of the Tigers’ previous six losses in conference came by five points or less. This time Clemson found a way behind Blossomgame.

“Jaron made big plays for us in the second half, which you need your best players to do,” Clemson coach Brad Brownwell said.

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 7:36 PM with the headline "Tigers top Pittsburgh to bring 6-game losing streak to an end."