Tigers fall to College of Charleston

CLEMSON - Antwaine Wiggins scored 22 points to lead the College of Charleston to a 72-69 win over Clemson on Saturday night.

BOX SCORE: College of Charleston 72 Clemson 69

The Cougars (3-0) hit the first basket of the game and led the rest of the way to pick up a fourth win over a major conference team in coach Bobby Cremins' six years at the school.

Charleston led by as many as 16 with less than 14 minutes to go, but Clemson (2-1) slowly climbed back in, scoring on 16 of its next 17 possessions. The Tigers had the ball down two in the final minute, but Adjehi Baru blocked Andre Young's driving layup.

Anthony Stitt hit one free throw and Young had a chance to tie it with a 3-pointer, but it clanged off the rim.

Devin Booker led Clemson with 16 points and 14 rebounds, while Tanner Smith added 15 points.

Trent Wiedman and Andrew Lawrence each added 15 points for Charleston, which can add the Tigers to an impressive list of upsets under Cremins that includes North Carolina and South Carolina at home and Tennessee on the road.

The Cougars, who start two sophomores and a freshman, came out quickly, scoring the first six points of the game. Clemson missed 16 of its first 22 shots and fell behind 24-12 with six minutes to go in the first half.

Young's 3-pointer with 3:22 left in the half cut Charleston's lead to nine, but the Cougars scored on five of their final six possession of the half to take a 39-24 lead at the break.

James Carlton's jumper with 13:46 to go put the Cougars up 50-34, but also seemed to finally wake Clemson up. But as the Tigers hit 16 of their next 25 shots, they struggled to string several stops together.

Wiggins hit a layup, then buried a 3-pointer with 4:46 to go that brought Charleston's lead back to 67-58. Stitt, whose cousin Demontez Stitt was a standout for Clemson, hit a hard driving layup after Young buried a 3 to put Charleston back up 69-61 with 4:01 left.

Booker made a layup with 2:11 to go that cut Clemson's deficit to four and Young got a steal, but missed two 3-pointers in a row before Booker's putback cut Charleston's lead to 71-69 with 1:18 to go.

The Cougars turned over the ball again, but Baru's block ended Clemson's next-to-last possession. Young's missed 3 then sealed Charleston's first win in an ACC team's gym since beating North Carolina in 1998.

It was just the fourth win in 20 games at Littlejohn Coliseum for Cremins and Charleston's first victory over Clemson since beating the Tigers 30-10 in January 1925 in a game played at the Sumter Guard Armory in Charleston.