A steal and a lay-up from freshman guard Ebuka Okorie with 14:19 left in the second half extended the Stanford lead to 41-35, giving them their largest lead of the night. The bucket tied Okorie with Casey Jacobsen for the fourth-most points (449) scored by a Stanford freshman in a season.
Redshirt sophomore forward Aidan Cammann had a memorable night as well with a career-high 19 points, but it was not enough as Stanford (14-9, 3-7 ACC) came up short in a 66-64 loss to No. 20 Clemson (19-4, 9-1 ACC).
Wednesday night’s game was by no means a must-win contest, but it was a game that the Cardinal desperately needed as they now brandish a five-game losing streak. After the upset win at home against North Carolina, a possible path to March Madness was beginning to form, but the last five games have all but torn down that foundation. A win against a ranked Clemson team could have salvaged the hopes of playing in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers have now won 13 straight conference road games, the fourth-longest streak in ACC history.
The game was a defensive battle with neither team able to pull away from each other. The largest lead of the night for either team was Clemson’s seven-point advantage at 53-46 midway through the second half, but that lead did not last long as back-to-back layups from Stanford quickly brought it back to a one-possession game.
The Cardinal were able to hang in against a defensively tough Tigers team in large part to Cammann. The Massachusetts native, who came off the bench averaging 4.8 points per game, was flying around the court on both ends of the floor for Stanford. To go along with his 19 points, including two three-pointers, Cammann totaled five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.
“It’s funny because I thought Aidan [Cammann] would be important this game and he was with his size and defense,” head coach Kyle Smith said.
Cammann’s biggest bucket of the night came in the final second of the first half. After a shaky first 15 minutes of the game, the Cardinal made a late-half push to knot the game at 30 apiece. In an uphill battle, momentum is key, and Cammann provided a momentum-swinging jump shot as the halftime buzzer sounded off. The level of aggression Cammann displayed on the offensive end had never been seen from him.
“When we were scouting [Clemson], we knew that they were going to be a really physical team,” Cammann said when asked about how his career-night came to be. “We hammered that in practice, just kind of leaning into that and all the little things that we try to do around the rim really helped.”
Another key player who gave Stanford a chance to win the game was freshman forward Oskar Giltay. Giltay came off the bench, adding eight points on four-for-four shooting while securing 11 rebounds. Giltay did a lot of the dirty work, having three offensive boards, two steals and a block to show for it.
“Oskar played a phenomenal game,” said Smith. “He made so many plays to try to help us win tonight.”
The freshman continues to show significant improvement and Giltay expressed pleasure in his progress since the start of the season.
“The first two months were a little bit of adapting,” Giltay said. “I just had to be way more tough. It took a little time… but I’m happy with how I have adapted.”
The night did provide a small victory. With Clemson forward RJ Godfrey’s two consecutive missed free throws in the final minutes of the game, Cardinal fans won a free burger at Shake Shack.
“I’m going to get a ticket so I can cash out,” said Smith. “I love Shake Shack.”
Stanford will have a few days to rest before welcoming Georgia Tech (11-12, 2-8 ACC) to Maples Pavilion on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.