The Hokies got the ball with 48 seconds remaining after Clemson’s Cliff Hammonds hit two free throws to tie the game at 57. Dixon missed a wide-open 3-point attempt with 23 seconds remaining. Vern Hamilton rebounded the miss for the Tigers and took the ball to half court, where he attempted a bounce pass to guard Shawan Robinson. Dixon anticipated the pass, stepped in front of it and took it the distance for the dunk. Clemson had a chance to tie or take the lead, but Robinson missed a 3-point attempt and Olu Babalola’s tip in did not fall as time expired.

Much like the Bethune Cookman game of Wednesday night, this contest was a tale of two halves. The Virginia Tech offense was anemic for most of the first 20 minutes. Clemson did a good job of extending their defense and not letting Zabian Dowdell and Carlos Dixon get into a rhythm from the outside. The Hokies also missed numerous opportunities to score, failing to finish inside and at times not catching simple passes underneath. Clemson went up 32-21 at one point and led 32-25 at the break.

At the half, Clemson senior forward Sharrod Ford was cleaning up. Ford had 10 points on 5-7 shooting in the first 15 minutes, but in a key sequence with five minutes remaining in the half, Ford picked up his second and third fouls within 21 seconds. He stayed on the bench for the remainder of the half and sat out the beginning of the second half.

Two Hokies, freshman forward Deron Washington and sophomore guard Zabian Dowdell, came on strong and hit clutch baskets for the Hokies down the stretch. Both players combined to go 2-6 from the field in the first half and had 2 points apiece. In the second half however, they both stepped up and made some key plays. Washington finished the game with 10 points and led Tech in rebounding with 8 boards. 7 of those rebounds came in the second half. Washington connected on 4 of 5 free throw attempts, and had zero turnovers, two statistics that he has struggled with for the entire season.

Dowdell, as he has done on quite a few occasions in his short career as a Hokie, hit some clutch shots down the stretch to help Tech to the win. He began his play late in the first half when he scored on a layup with 40 seconds remaining that cut Clemson’s lead to 7. With 10:51 remaining in the game, Dowdell scored yet again on a breakaway layup and was fouled. He converted the free throw to bring the Hokies within striking distance. Between that free throw and the 8:25 mark, Dowdell hit two jump shots and 2 more free throws.

Perhaps his biggest play of the day came soon thereafter. With Clemson leading 50-48 with 5:32 remaining, Dowdell stole the ball and scored on a breakaway dunk, tying the game at 50. The game would go back and forth for the next few minutes, and Dowdell hit another big jumper with 1:19 remaining, putting the Hokies up 57-55. After an ineffective first half, Dowdell finished the game with 15 points on 6-12 shooting. He also had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

The Hokies won this game despite getting little production from their bench. The Tech reserves scored only 2 points in this game. Those points came late in the first half on a layup by Jeff King, who recently joined the team after football season was over.

The Hokies did win the battle in several other important statistics however. Tech scored 19 points off turnovers to Clemson’s 11, outscored the Tigers 28-26 in the paint, had 18 second chance points to Clemson’s 12, hit 18-24 free throws to just 5-10 for the Tigers, and won the fast break battle 16-7. Tech placed 4 players in double figures. In addition to Washington’s 10 and Dowdell’s 15, Carlos Dixon scored 12 points and Jamon Gordon had 14. Gordon also had a big day on the offensive glass, with 4 offensive rebounds.

The win improves the Hokies to 8-6 overall and 1-2 in ACC play. Clemson drops to 10-6 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. The Hokies return to action on Wednesday night when they face NC State at 7 pm in Blacksburg. The game will be televised by Regional SportsNet (Comcast SportsNet, Fox SportsNet, and the Sunshine Network).