While it is no secret that the Clemson men’s basketball team has struggled early on this season, the Tigers made quite the statement Saturday night with a historic 79-76 win over North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

The Tigers fell behind early in Saturday’s matchup, but overcame a nine-point deficit with 2:05 left in regulation to force overtime and eventually come out with the victory.

Saturday’s win broke the NCAA’s longest consecutive road losing streak, previously 0-59 until Saturday night. The Clemson Insider met the team back at Littlejohn Coliseum to get their thoughts on the historic victory.

“Well it’s certainly special and it’s good to get the streak over with,” head coach Brad Brownell said. “I’m just really proud of the way our players played. Our guys executed extremely well the last seven or eight minutes of the game and in overtime. Certainly, to win it this way was special and fun and hopefully now that it’s over, we can try to build on some bigger things.”

Aamir Simms led Clemson in scoring with 20 points and eight rebounds, and proved one of the biggest difference makers for the Tigers. Simms launched the tying three at the end of regulation and sent the game into overtime.

“Aamir [Simms] was terrific. Obviously, he made two or three big threes there down the stretch,” Brownell said. “The one he made to tie the game is the one most people are going to remember, but he made another one that was just as big and then in overtime he hit a couple of backdoor passes for layups.”

Brownell said the way his team battled and took advantage of open opportunities came as no surprise to him and that it all started during their eventual gold medal win in Italy this summer.

“It happened in Italy about three times and we won close games and certainly now, the TCU game was just like this where we were down a bunch late and had to make big plays, so we were finally able to do that,” he said. “I’m just really proud of the resiliency these guys showed.”

Clemson players showed Brownell with Gatorade in the locker room to celebrate the end of the Chapel Hill curse and their coach will never forget it.

“I think I got a concussion when one of my guys who elbowed me in the head, so I got a knot on my head from having so much fun in there. Those are the things that you really remember as a coach or the experiences like that with your players.”

Clemson hosts No. 2 Duke on Tuesday night in Littlejohn Coliseum.

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