Box Score West Virginia rallied from 10 points down in the second half to defeat Clemson 66-59 in the third-place game of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic tonight at TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina.
 
The Mountaineers (4-1) were trailing 49-39 with 14 minutes remaining, and it appeared to be a repeat of Friday night's loss to Marquette when West Virginia was overrun by the Golden Eagles in the second half.
 
But WVU tightened its defense and got some critical baskets from Sean McNeil, who finished with a team-high 15 points.
 
"That was the Mountaineer team right there," said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who got career victory No. 904 moving him past Roy Williams into sole possession of fourth place on the NCAA's all-time Division I wins list. 
 
In recognition of this amazing achievement, the Mountaineer Athletic Club is asking WVU fans to make a special contribution of $9.04 to Mountaineer athletics by clicking this link: https://wvugame.evenue.net/www/ev_wvu/ss/ev/DonationEntry?donationCd=HUGGINS&siteId=ev_wvu&locale=en_US&linkID=wvu
 
Huggins was pleased to see his guys play much harder in the second half tonight than they did in the second half of Friday night's defeat.
 
"That's the team our fans are used to seeing – playing hard and competing hard," Huggins said. "We didn't do that (Friday) night and they were as embarrassed as I was."
 
A Dimon Carrigan layup began a 17-7 Mountaineer run to tie the game at 56 on McNeil's jumper. McNeil, who went scoreless in the first half, scored 15 of West Virginia's final 23 points, including four important free throws inside of a minute to play.
 
WVU's defense held Clemson without a field goal over the game's final 5:50. With 17 seconds left in the game, Clemson was assessed a technical foul for having six players on the floor when West Virginia was attempting to inbound the basketball. Two free throws were awarded to West Virginia, which McNeil made, and the Mountaineers also got the ball back with a seven-point lead.
 
Clemson (4-2) wasn't able to sustain the two offensive spurts it had to begin the game and early in the second half; the Tigers also led 17-9 at the game's outset.
 
Al-Amir Dawes scored a game-high 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting, with 12 of those coming in the first five minutes of the game before West Virginia adjusted its defense.
 
"They made shots early on and we didn't make shots," Huggins said. "We were trying to throw it close and establish an inside presence and we didn't do a very good job of that. Then, we gave up two layups and I went crazy in the huddle and we came back out and got after them pretty good."
 
The Mountaineers fought back to tie the game at 20 and took its first lead, 24-23, on Kedrian Johnson's jumper with 6:12 left. WVU had a 35-32 lead and the ball with 30 seconds left in the half. But Malik Curry missed a short jumper with eight seconds remaining, which allowed P.J. Hall enough time to score ahead of the first half horn.
 
Clemson began the second half by scoring 15 of the next 19 points with WVU's  lone field goals coming from Taz Sherman and Isaiah Cottrell.
 
"We missed easy shots in the paint, or at least get fouled and we didn't do any of that," Huggins said. "We didn't really attack the rim. We went away from them instead of going at them. Once we started going at them it make it much easier for us to score inside."
 
Clemson turnovers and missed free throws were a key factor in West Virginia's comeback. The Tigers finished the game turning the ball over 20 times, with 10 of those coming in the second half, while connecting on just 10 of their 18 free throw attempts.
 
West Virginia, which shot just 42.6% for the game, managed to get off 13 more shots than Clemson in the second half, making 12. 
 
WVU had a four-rebound advantage on the glass and outscored the Tigers 12 to 2 in second-chance points. Another area Huggins thought benefitted his team was bench scoring with the Mountaineers showing an 18 to 8 edge there. Curry produced half of those on 4 of 7 shooting.
 
Taz Sherman contributed 12 although he made just 5 of his 16 field goal attempts.  Ten different players got into the game for West Virginia with nine getting into the scoring column. Senior forward Gabe Osabuohien once again played an outstanding all-around game with 4 points, four assists, a block, a steal and a team-high seven rebounds.
 
"Gabe was great," Huggins said. "We ran some dribble handoffs with him and he did a great job of screening without fouling."
 
Clemson shot 55% for the game, making 22 of its 40 field goal attempts.
 
Nick Honor and Hall scored 10 points each for the Tigers.
 
Tonight's win was West Virginia's second this season against an ACC opponent. The Mountaineers downed Pitt 74-59 at the Coliseum on Nov. 12.
 
West Virginia will be off for Thanksgiving break before resuming play on Friday night at the Coliseum against Eastern Kentucky. That begins a five-game homestand that also includes games against Bellarmine, Radford, 23^rd-ranked Connecticut and Kent State.
 
"Now we go back for (five) straight at home," Huggins said. "It would be great to have that place filled again like it was for Pitt and make it a fun atmosphere. Let's  go win a bunch in a row and get ranked again and be considered contenders for national honors."
 
Tickets still remain for all five games and can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.