For the second time in four days, the Clemson men’s basketball team went to overtime. Chase Hunter‘s bench shot gave the No. 25 Tigers life against the rival Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena, another five extra minutes of basket shooting.

Against Memphis, the Tigers ran out of gas in overtime and suffered their second loss of the season.

The result in Colombia told a similar story.

Christian Reeves had a chance to equalize at the line by scoring a double at the charity stripe instead. The Gamecocks (8-3) held off the Tigers (9-3) 91-88 in overtime.

Despite Hunter’s heroics at the buzzer, South Carolina was able to do enough to hold off multiple Clemson rallies.

The lead only changed four times as the Tigers led several turnovers to cut the Gamecocks’ lead to one or two possessions. In these cases, a mistake or two on Clemson’s part would turn their effort into another chase.

Some of those attempts benefited the Gamecocks, who held a 35-28 lead over Clemson on the glass. South Carolina also grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and scored 13 second-chance points.

Much of that told a different overtime result in Columbia, as did Clemson’s start to the first half.

Given Memphis’ defense, it took time Brad BrownellIt took the offense nearly six minutes to adjust to the intensity of Penny Hardaway’s defense and score their first basket.

The Gamecocks got a taste of Hardaway by stifling the Tiger offense in the first half, holding them to 31 percent shooting from the field in the first 20 minutes.

Those first-half struggles were led by Hunter, who scored a total of zero points in the early going.

When he came out of the locker room, there was something completely different about his game.

Hunter dropped 27 points in the second half and overtime as he and Ian Schiefelin Led the Tiger offense and combined for 50 points in Columbia.

Schieffelin was eventually fouled with 3:49 to play in the second half as he was involved in a fight with Collin Murray-Boyles, who had also fouled in the extended action.

This variety of fouls led to numerous calls at the foul line for both groups, as both programs combined for 55 shots at the charity line, with the Gamecocks leading the way with 34 while Clemson had 21.

Despite the loss, the Tigers found another contributor off the bench to log valuable minutes, which only helped elevate Clemson’s depth.

Jake Heidbreder scored a season-high 10 points on 3-5 shooting and played a season-high 26 minutes. His perfect shot in the first half gave the Tigers enough to stay within eight points heading into the locker room.

Clemson will travel home to face Wake Forest on Dec. 21 at 2 p.m. on ESPN hoping to avoid three straight losses.

CHASE HUNTER! WE ARE WORKING OVERTIME!

📺 SECN pic.twitter.com/lgQeYMBZoM

— Clemson Basketball (@ClemsonMBB) December 18, 2024

For the first time since February 1937, Clemson has lost two straight games in overtime

— Tim Bourret (@TimBourret) December 18, 2024