|
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) -- A floor burn on his left hand was the only
thing that stopped Edward Scott on Wednesday night.
|  | | Craig Dawson looks to pass, but Clemson's Tony Stockman has other ideas. |
Scott had career highs of 30 points and 16 assists to lead
Clemson to a 118-115 double-overtime victory over Wake
Forest (No. 17 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP).
Clemson (12-13, 3-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) looked to have
the game wrapped up in regulation, leading by 11 points with 1:03
left.
But Wake Forest (17-8, 7-4) hit five 3-pointers down the stretch
and Taron Downey's runner with 0.6 seconds left capped the run and
tied the game at 94.
"That was tough," Scott said. "But I figured we had an extra
five minutes to come back and make something happen."
Clemson needed 10.
The turning point for the Tigers came with 1:20 left in the
first overtime when Wake Forest's Darius Songaila, who scored 24
points, fouled out with the Demon Deacons leading 101-98.
With Songaila gone and Scott nursing his floor burn, the Tigers
started pounding the ball inside.
Chris Hobbs made a free throw to cut the deficit to two. He tied
the game at 101 with a layup with 55 seconds left, but he missed
the foul shot that would have given the Tigers lead.
"I just didn't want to be the goat," Hobbs said.
He made two free throws with 12 seconds left to seal the win,
but called a timeout Clemson didn't have and the free throws on the
technical foul allowed the Demon Deacons to pull within 116-115.
But Hobbs, who finished with 24 points and 17 rebounds, made two
free throws and Steve Lepore turned the ball over trying for a
possible game-tying 3-pointer.
Hobbs and frontcourtmate Ray Henderson took advantage of
Songaila's absence to score 13 of the Tigers' 17 points in the
second overtime.
Craig Dawson, who hit three of his school-record 11 3-pointers
in the run to close regulation, finished with a career-high 38
points for Wake Forest.
The 233 points were one off the record for an ACC game set Dec.
20, 1978, when Maryland beat North Carolina State 124-110.
Tony Stockman had a career-high 30 points and tied his personal
best with six assists for Clemson.
In the earlier loss to Wake Forest, Stockman and Scott were a
combined 2-for-17. On Wednesday night, they were 19-for-34.
"Their perimeter guys played really well. But that's twice in
the last two games I've said that," said Wake Forest coach Skip
Prosser, whose team lost to Cincinnati 103-94 on Saturday.
Wake Forest finished 19-for-42 (45.2 percent) from behind the
arc.
Clemson shot 23-for-45 from the free-throw line, but missed four of
eight foul shots in the final 41 seconds of regulation.
"We made it tough on ourselves by missing so many free
throws," Tigers coach Larry Shyatt said. "If there ever was a
time for a group of young people to give in, this was it. But they
did not." | 
