Carter Welling came alive Friday night just when it seemed Clemson was about ready to be put to bed.

Instead, the Tigers’ 6-foot-11 forward handed Ross Hodge his first defeat as the WVU men’s basketball coach following a 70-67 victory inside the TD Arena in the opening round of the Charleston (S.C.) Classic.

While Welling’s effort was commendable, WVU also went through a critical mental glitch in the final seconds that could have made a difference. That moment saw West Virginia’s Chance Moore pick up a rebound off a missed free throw with 8.1 seconds remaining with WVU trailing 68-65.

The rebound wasn’t exactly clean and Clemson defenders put heavy pressure around the ball. Moore took a couple of dribbles and found a wide open Brenen Lorient, who caught the ball a few steps inside the 3-point line. He went in for a wide-open dunk when the Mountaineers needed a 3-pointer to tie the game.

“That was 100% on me,” Hodge said. “I should have called a timeout. I saw it, kind of like seeing a train wreck happening right in front of your eyes. You freeze and that was 100% my fault. I should have got the trailing official and should have gotten the timeout and not even have put (Lorient) in that situation.”

The bigger story, though, was Welling, who scored 11 of Clemson’s final 12 points. All 11 came in the final 3:10, after WVU still held a 63-58 lead.

“Down the stretch, they were able to execute at a higher level than we were,” Hodge said.

“They got the ball where they wanted it. They finished. We had a hard time getting the ball where we wanted it. When we did, we didn’t finish.”

West Virginia (5-1), which led by as many as 11 with 10:57 remaining in the game, will now play the loser of the Georgia-Xavier game at 1 p.m. Sunday. The Georgia-Xavier game was played late Friday.

WVU still held a 61-53 lead with 6:10 remaining, after Honor Huff nailed two free throws, but that’s when the Tigers (5-1) began to chip away.

First, it was a drive from Dillon Hunter that was followed up by Jestin Porter getting into the passing lane and denying a pass to Huff. Porter came up with the steal and got a lay-up at the other end.

That set up Welling, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. That’s right, Welling had just two points heading into the final stretch, but he came up with a huge 3-pointer at the 3:09 mark to cut WVU’s lead to 63-61.

On Clemson’s next possession, Welling gave the Tigers the lead for good. On a high pick-and-roll play, for some reason both WVU’s Jasper Floyd and Brenen Lorient chased after Hunter, who had driven toward the basket.

Hunter fell down, but was able to kick the ball back out to a wide open Welling, who nailed Clemson’s seventh 3-pointer of the game for a 64-63 lead.

His next basket came in the paint over Floyd, which forced Hodge to call a timeout at the 1:10 mark with the Mountaineers trailing 66-63.

Moore scored on a lay-up and Welling went 1 of 2 from the foul line, which gave Clemson a 67-65 lead. WVU’s best chance to take the lead saw Floyd airball a 3-point attempt in the corner with nine seconds remaining.

That sent Jake Wahlin to the line. He made the first for a 68-65 lead, but missed the second attempt, which set up Moore’s play to Lorient.

WVU was forced to foul and Welling went 2 for 2 at the line to finish off his dominating stretch in which he personally outscored the Mountaineers 11-4.

“We haven’t been faced with that type of adversity yet this season,” WVU guard Honor Huff said. “As a veteran group, I thought we did a poor job of staying composed and handling that. Down the stretch, we didn’t do a good job.”

In his first game in a WVU uniform, Moore made one heck of a season debut.

The transfer from St. Bonaventure, who had to sit out an NCAA-mandated five games this season before becoming eligible, finished with 16 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots.

The 6-foot-6 guard came off the bench for West Virginia and first made his presence known with a tough drive along the baseline that got him past Clemson forward Nick Davidson and then posterized R.J. Godfrey with a one-handed dunk.

His bigger moment came at the end of the first half, as Clemson was trying to inbounds the ball with 1.9 seconds remaining.

Chase Thompson tried to hit Welling with a long pass. Moore came off his guy, intercepted the pass, took a quick dribble and banked in a 44-footer at the buzzer to give the Mountaineers a 32-25 lead at the half.

His two blocks came early in the second half when it appeared WVU had a chance to pull away. He added a 3-pointer to give WVU a 50-41 lead with 11:27 remaining.

“It was an intense game,” Moore said. “We’re sad that we couldn’t get the win. I feel like we have a great group and we’re going to keep getting better. I’m glad to be back.”

Huff scored a game high 17 points. One game after going 8 of 9 from 3-point range, the senior went 3 of 4 from behind the arc against Clemson.

The Tigers were efficient, shooting 46% (24 of 52) from the field, the highest shooting percentage allowed by the Mountaineers this season. Clemson also held a 32-22 advantage in paint points.

WVU countered with a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points against the bigger Clemson lineup, but the Mountaineers shot just 40% (23 of 57) from the field.