For the second year in a row, Naithan George and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets took down Clemson basketball in overtime at Littlejohn Coliseum.
This time, it took three overtimes as George scored a season-high 28 points and the Yellow Jackets beat the 21st-ranked Tigers in a 89-86 upset Tuesday.
The loss snapped a seven-game Clemson (18-5, 10-2) winning streak, while Georgia Tech (11-12, 5-7) pulled off its second straight upset of a top 25 team after beating Louisville on Saturday. For the Tigers, it was only their third triple-overtime game in school history; they’ve lost all three.
Clemson led 34-33 at halftime after a back-and-forth first half that featured eight lead changes. In the second half, the Tigers led by as many six points at 60-54 with 2:39 to play.
But the Tigers went the final four-plus minutes of regulation without a field goal, and when Dillon Hunter missed what would have been a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left, Duncan Powell got a put-back off a missed shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime tied at 64-all.
Making matters worse, it just wasn’t Chase Hunter’s night.
While the sixth-year senior and team leader led the way with 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists, he missed two separate game-winning attempts at the buzzer in the first two overtime periods.
In the final overtime, the Yellow Jackets went ahead 83-80 on Lance Terry’s 3-pointer with 3:08 remaining and never trailed again. Clemson had one last chance with 3.2 seconds left, but Hunter missed at the buzzer again to cap a disappointing night all-around in Tigertown.
Clemson gets an extra day of rest with No. 2 Duke coming to town Saturday night. The Blue Devils and freshman star Cooper Flagg will face the Tigers at 6 p.m. ET at Littlejohn Coliseum. The game will be televised on ESPN.
This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Chase Hunter, Clemson goes cold in upset loss to Georgia Tech
