For 20 minutes, Clemson (7-3) looked every bit the giant slayer. The Tigers bullied No. 10 BYU (8-1) on the boards, locked down defensively, and sprinted to the locker room with the confidence of a team that wanted the game more and was executing at a lethal pace. But what followed was a collapse that will sting for quite some time, a 67–64 loss capped by a buzzer-beating three from BYU’s Robert Wright III in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
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First-Half Dominance
Clemson came out of the locker room with a point to prove. The Tigers have looked every bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde basketball team in the 2025-26 season. Earlier in the season, Clemson had fallen behind by double digits against Georgetown, West Virginia, and just last week almost managed to dig out of a 19-point hole in their last outing against #12 Alabama before mounting a raging comeback that ended falling short, a neutral site game in New York City would be the perfect place to put the doubters to bed about what the real identity of the team was.
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After an opening 8 minutes of back and forth basketball resulting in a 22-22 deadlock, Clemson’s opened up a masterclass in physicality and execution. The Tigers closed the half with a relentless surge, sparked by a barrage of Jestin Porter’s deep three’s and punctuated by Butta Johnson rejection at the rim. Porter poured in 14 first-half points with 2 of his 4 first half three’s coming off second chance opportunities provided by RJ Godfrey. Defense and rebounding sealed the first half dominance for the Tigers as BYU failed to score in the final 11 minutes of the half, shooting just 28% overall. Clemson forced three turnovers during the run and controlled tempo. Clemson owned the glass, grabbing 24 rebounds (including 9 offensive) compared to BYU’s 15. RJ Godfrey led with 4 boards, three on the offensive end. Clemson managed to hold BYU Freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa to only 6 points taking a 43-22 point lead into the locker room. with heads held high.
Second-Half Collapse
The game flipped immediately as the teams stepped on the floor for the 2nd half. After shooting 45% from the field and 35% from three point range, The Tigers shot just 25.9% in the second half, endured two scoring droughts of four-plus minutes, and committed eight turnovers. BYU managed to cut the lead to single digits and a bizarre delay followed as the Madison Square Garden officials had to stop the game to level the backboard on BYU’s net after a thunderous slam by Keba Keita.
After scoring only 6 first half points on 2-of-7 shooting, AJ Dybantsa absolutely took over the second half. The freshman phenom scored 22 of his 28 points after halftime, despite solid defense by Butta Johnson throughout the game. In fact, Dybantsa was responsible for either scoring or assisting on 30 of BYU’s 45 second half points with a mid-range jumper that just couldn’t be stopped despite everyone in the arena knowing it was coming.
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After a monstrous one handed dunk from Dybantsa over two Clemson defenders put BYU up 62-56 with one minute to play, Dylan Hunter managed to tie the game with a driving layup with 5 seconds remaining. After a BYU timeout,  Robert White would redeem himself after missing a crucial free throw early by by splitting a pair of defenders and hitting a running 3 to give the Cougar’s their largest second-half comeback in program history, and leaving Clemson with more questions than answers about the identity of their squad.
By the Numbers
Porter led the tigers in scoring with 17 on the night and five 3-pointers, While RJ Godfrey was the only other Tiger in double figures with 13-points. The Tigers shot 36% from the field on the evening and 31% from beyond the arc. BYU was lead by Dybantsa with 28 points on 9-of-17 shooting while making 9 of his 10 free throws. He also pulled down 9 rebound and dished out 6 assists on the evening. After a lopsided first half, Clemson only managed to outrebound BYU on the evening by a margin of 2 (38-36). Clemson turned the ball over 12 times (7 in the second half) to BYU’s 9.
What’s Next
The Tigers (7-3) will return home to face Mercer on Saturday, aiming to regroup before ACC play. Be sure to sound off in the comments below about what went wrong, and how the Tigers can turn the ship around in the hurry with conference play quickly approaching.
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While this loss stings, some things are about more than basketball. In tonight’s game Clemson had the honor of taking part in the Jimmy V Classic which brings awareness to one of the nations leading killers, cancer. Cancer has touched almost all of us at sometime in our lives, including myself with my Father, Grandparents and Aunt all battling the disease. The Jimmy V Foundation has donated $458 million dollars to cancer research since it’s inception in 1993 and all funds go directly to cancer research. If you are interested in donating, please follow the official link V.org/donate and consider making your donation today. Please note that this is not a sponsored link from Shakin the Southland.