Clemson faces Mercer, hopes to learn from heartbreaker

Clemson Tigers aims to snap a two-game slide on Saturday afternoon when it hosts Mercer Bears.

The Tigers (7-3) have narrowly lost back-to-back games to power-conference opponents, falling by six points at Alabama last week and by three points to BYU on Tuesday at a neutral-site clash in New York. Robert Wright III made a last-second 3-pointer to lift the Cougars to victory.

What doomed Clemson was its inability to stop the Cougars from grabbing offensive rebounds and turning those opportunities into points. BYU pulled down 16 offensive boards and flipped them into 22 second-chance points. The Tigers also seemingly didn't have an answer for BYU's AJ Dybantsa, who scored 28 points.

The Tigers led by as many as 22 points at the start of the second half before collapsing, which Clemson coach Brad Brownell chose to view as a silver lining.

"I thought our guys fought like crazy," Brownell said. "The first 20 minutes, I thought we played our best basketball of the season ... We played our heart out, and guys made some plays down the stretch to give us a chance to go to overtime."

Mercer (7-2) doesn't have a player like Dybantsa, but the Bears have won five straight games and play at a fast pace. Mercer ranks 24th nationally in field goal attempts this season, taking 65.2 per game. The Bears are also 75th nationally in KenPom.com's adjusted tempo metric.

Baraka Okojie leads the Bears this season with 17.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and a Southern Conference-best 5.9 assists per game. He previously played at George Mason and Memphis.

"He's an elite leader. He's a connector. He's got incredible experience for a player his age," Mercer coach Ryan Ridder said recently of Okojie. "From a basketball perspective, he's just so steady."

RJ Godfrey is one of three players averaging in double figures in scoring for Clemson, putting up 12.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

--Field Level Media