Yesterday's biggest game highlight was the reconciliation between Mrs. Bull and Hot Dog Boy.

Cavaliers get in the ACC win column
Virginia's four-game losing streak finally comes to an end against Clemson.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

CHARLOTTESVILLE - For whatever peace of mind that he has remaining, Virginia men's basketball coach Pete Gillen mostly has Clemson to thank.

Gillen, who may have owed his return this year to three victories over the Tigers last year, saw his Cavaliers capture their first ACC win of the 2004-05 season when they held off the Tigers 81-79 at University Hall. Virginia (10-6, 1-5 ACC) snapped a four-game losing streak and moved into a tie for 10th place in the ACC with the Tigers (9-8, 1-5).

On a night when they shot 57.1 percent from the field and committed a season-low six turnovers, the Cavaliers couldn't rest easy until Sharrod Ford's 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer.

Clemson already had made a season-high 13 3-point field goals, but the Tigers' 30th 3-point attempt of the game was only the fourth career 3-point attempt for Ford, who is 0-for-4.

"I was nervous it was going to go in," Gillen said. "Murphy's Law."

In other words, if something can go wrong, it's going to go wrong. On the other hand, Clemson now has lost 48 of its last 52 ACC road games, although the Tigers had won at Florida State only 10 days earlier.

Devin Smith led four Virginia scorers in double figures with 22 points. Fellow senior Elton Brown added 16 points, including three field goals in the final 3:26.

Clemson senior Olu Babalola shared high-scoring honors with 22 points, including a 3-pointer that brought Clemson within two points with 17.1 seconds left.

UVa had gone ahead 81-77 when J.R. Reynolds made both ends of a one-and-one with 33.3 seconds, but Reynolds missed the front end of a one-and-one with 13.3 seconds to play.

"We had a play set up if they made the free throw," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "[Ford] opted for the 3, but obviously we didn't need it. If it goes in, we all go home happy. Since it didn't, you'd rather he would have gone inside.

"We got a wide-open shot. You couldn't have drawn it up any better."

Ford later said he had lost track of the score and felt that the Tigers needed a 3-pointer, or else he wouldn't have taken a step back to make sure he was behind the line.

There were nine lead changes before UVa grabbed the advantage on a Gary Forbes basket with 9:20 remaining before halftime. UVa led by as much as 35-29 before going to the locker room with a 41-35 spread, the third time it had led at the half in an ACC game.

After outrebounding the Tigers 18-12 in the first half, Virginia gave up two offensive rebounds on Clemson's first possession of the second half and the Tigers quickly climbed into the game at 45-45. Virginia followed that with a 9-1 run, capped by a Smith 3-pointer, but the Tigers wouldn't go away.

Virginia's six turnovers were its lowest total in an ACC game during the seven-year Gillen era and helped offset Clemson's whopping 23-11 second-half differential on the boards.

"That was our biggest win of the year, getting No.10 and winning a league game," said Gillen, who is 4-0 against Clemson and 4-16 against all other ACC opponents during the past two seasons. "We needed something good to happen.

"You can't win a couple of games in a row until you win one in a row. Obviously, we've got a very tough game Thursday at Virginia Tech. We'll enjoy this game a little bit and worry about the Hokies in about eight minutes."
 

Errant 3-point try costs Clemson
By JON SOLOMON
Staff Writer

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia found a new way to frustrate Clemson.

The Tigers offered a rare glimpse of outside shooting but wasted the effort with porous defense. When center Sharrod Ford’s open 3-point attempt fell short at the buzzer, Virginia survived for an 81-79 victory that snuffed the Tigers’ bid for a rare ACC road win.

Virginia shot 57 percent and never trailed after the midway point of the first half. The Cavaliers’ sharp shooting offset Clemson’s 13 3-pointers, which tied for the fifth-highest single-game total in school history.

J.R. Reynolds, an 89 percent foul shooter, gave Clemson life by missing the front end of a one-and-one with 13.3 seconds remaining.

Without a timeout, Clemson had a chance to tie or win. Virginia snuffed a drive attempt by Cliff Hammonds, who was forced to pass to Ford in the corner with time running out.

Ford took a step backward, behind the arc, to attempt the fourth 3-pointer of his Clemson career. It, like the others, was off target.

“I thought we were down three, so I took a three,” Ford said. “I just wasn’t sure what the score was. I probably would have shot it right where I caught it instead of stepping back” had he known Clemson trailed by two points.

Coach Oliver Purnell described the last sequence as a “broken play.”

“He opted for the 3,” Purnell said. “Obviously we didn’t have to have a 3. If it would have gone in, we all would have gone home happy.”

Trailing 81-76, Clemson’s Olu Babalola, who tied his career high with 22 points, sank a 3-pointer with 17.1 seconds left. The Tigers immediately fouled Reynolds to set up the finish.

Paced by 63 percent shooting after halftime, Virginia (10-6, 1-5 ACC) became the last ACC team to win a conference game. Devin Smith led the Cavaliers with 22 points, and Elton Brown finished with 16 points, including three significant baskets in the final 3:30.

Clemson (10-8, 1-5) lost for the fourth consecutive time to Virginia, which defeated the Tigers three times last season. Two of those games came down to the final moments, adding to Clemson’s frustration.

“That’s four in a row, that’s what’s embarrassing,” Babalola said.

The Tigers entered the game shooting 28 percent beyond the 3-point line in ACC games. They went 13-of-30 (43 percent), with Babalola and Shawan Robinson each hitting four and Cheyenne Moore connecting on three.

“The night that we put together a pretty good shooting night, our defense wasn’t able to get it,” Purnell said. “We were trying to find ways to stop them in the second half.”

Clemson made 7 of 12 3-pointers in the first half yet trailed 41-35 at intermission. Virginia, which has the worst field-goal-percentage defense in the ACC, used a zone throughout the half. Clemson capitalized by shooting 50 percent from the field and made seven of its first nine 3-pointers.

Babalola, who was 4-of-18 on 3-pointers before Saturday, made 3-of-4.

Led by 12 points each from Smith and Sean Singletary, Virginia shot 51.7 percent.

The Cavaliers used a 20-5 run to build a nine-point lead. They scored on 14 of 19 possessions during a lengthy stretch, aided by spotty transition defense from Clemson.

The Tigers committed seven turnovers, but Virginia had a 16-2 advantage in points off turnovers. Virginia turned the ball over just twice in the first half and six times for the game.

Gillen gets in Big E's head
Brown steps up big in win
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
January 23, 2005

Ever since Wednesday night's loss at Maryland that sent Virginia spiraling to an Oh-and-Five record in the ACC, UVa coach Pete Gillen has been working on Cavaliers center Elton Brown. Gillen integrated some Dr. Phil and some Richard Simmons in an attempt to rekindle a fire in Big E for the remainder of the season. Whatever Gillen did, it had an impact on Brown in Saturday night's 81-79 win over visiting Clemson, the Hoos' first ACC victory this year. The coach had noticed that his wide-bodied senior had been dragging a little. Perhaps it was a funk created by the Cavs' conference slump. As Bill Walton would say, it was just h-o-r-r-i-b-l-e. Perhaps it was the frustration of constantly being double- or triple-teamed by Wahoo opponents. Everybody from College Park to Coral Gables knows that you had better find a way to stop Brown inside if you want to beat Virginia. Teams have done a little bit of everything to take him out of the game and force the Cavalier guards to get the job done. Whatever it was, it had gotten to Brown and it showed.

No armchair psychologist

It wasn't exactly a couch session, but Gillen had several talks with Brown about what was going on as he worked on the big man's psyche. "Coach told me, 'Elton, you haven't been playing with the emotion and fire that you used to. Anytime you come out happy, yelling and screaming and talking ... those are the games you always explode in. You've been fading away from that lately,'" Brown related. "He said, 'I need that fire. You're an emotional player and we feed off that.'" Gillen was right and Brown knew it. After losing six of the last nine games, Gillen needed fire wherever he could find it and Brown was as likely a source as any. The coach also worked with Brown on what to do when other teams gang up on him. They worked on finding an open teammate, concentrating on rebounding and other little things that could make a difference for the team. "Nobody in the league gets doubled and tripled like Elton Brown," Gillen said after Saturday's win. "Nobody. I'm not saying he's the best player in the league, but nobody gets doubled and tripled like him. Not Shelden Williams at Duke, not Sean May at Carolina, or Wake's Eric Williams."

Making a Big E difference

Brown passed the ball better against Clemson, hitting power forward Donte Minter twice with both leading to scores, and worked hard as he helped the Cavaliers pull out of their slump. Big E scored 16 points, hitting 7 of 11 field goals, had seven rebounds, two assists, only one turnover and played solid defense. What's more, the old fire returned to Brown's belly and it showed. A couple of times, after he had contorted his wide body to score against a forest of Clemson defenders in the lane, Brown nearly fell down as he barreled out of heavy traffic pumping his fist with excitement. Brown was determined that the Cavaliers' losing streak would stop on this snowy night in Charlottesville. In fact, he was so confident that he did something completely out of character earlier in the day. "At the shoot around, I walked up to my calendar in my locker and just marked Clemson off," Brown said later. "I've never done that before. I never mark a team off before we play them. But I was determined not to lose this one." That truly took confidence after the slide Virginia was mired in. While Clemson was one game ahead of the Cavs in the ACC standings coming into the game, the Tigers were certainly capable of winning, although their road record is even more atrocious than UVa's. Clemson has now won just four of its last 52 ACC road games, which doesn't make Virginia's 10-41 mark look quite so bad. Brown really turned it on in the second half when he scored six of his baskets and made both assists to Minter. In fact, the big man scored three straight times in a two-minute stretch late in the game to keep the Cavs ahead of the surging Tigers. His stickback of a Sean Singletary miss made it 75-68 with 3:27 to play, followed by a short shot to make it 77-71. Then after Clemson cut it to 77-75, he drove the lane and scored with his right hand for a 79-75 lead with 1:35 remaining.

Sigh of relief

When Clemson's Sharrod Ford caught the ball with just seconds to go, was wide-open on the right wing and stepped back behind the 3-point arch, Brown took a deep breath. So did Gillen, who is more acquainted with Murphy's Law than he would like. "If he had hit that, I would have cried all the way to the locker room," Brown said later. Ford, who had not made a 3-pointer all season, banged it short off the rim and Gillen, Brown and all of the Cavaliers released a sigh that could have blown the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria all the way across the Atlantic. All that psychology had paid off. Gillen had told Brown that he had never coached a big man that had gotten so much attention from opponents. "He told me that when teams double and triple me that they're showing me respect," Brown said of his conversation with his coach. "It made me feel good and made me work harder on other parts of my game ... rebounding, setting screens, the dirty work." True to his word, Clemson ganged up on Brown, but the big man showed more patience than usual and didn't force shots inside, which had led to several of UVa's 45 blocked shots in the previous four games. Clemson blocked only five. "[Getting double-teamed] can get frustrating, but if a team does that, they're not just doing it to be doing it," Brown said. "They're trying to take me out of the game and make other people beat them. Tonight, other guys stepped up." Indeed. While Devin Smith (22 points), Singletary (15, seven assists) and J.R. Reynolds (11 points) made a big splash, guys like Jason Cain, T.J. Bannister, Adrian Joseph and Minter, all contributed to the win.

Focus on finishing

One of the big focuses by Gillen was the second half. His team had been fading in the second stanzas of ACC games and that had to stop. Even Brown has been huffing and puffing down the home stretch. So, the day after the Maryland loss, even though his team was tired and just about every player was bothered by an assortment of nagging injuries, he put them back to work. "All we did for 30 minutes that day was conditioning," Brown said. "Coach said he knew we didn't have our legs, that we were tired and that he knew I was working hard, but he wanted me playing all the time, and he needed me to get in shape." Virginia's players spent that half hour on exercise bikes, treadmills and stairmasters. It was particularly important that Virginia hang with Clemson early in the second half. In the Tigers' last 10 games, the team that has won the first five minutes of the second half has emerged with a win in nine of those contests. The Cavs owned their largest lead - 10 points, 54-44 - with 13:40 remaining in the second half. "We finally came out the second half with a little bit more intensity," Brown said. "A lot of games this season, we have hung with teams and in the second half they blow it open because we don't come out focused." This time the Cavs were focused and didn't show signs of fatigue. For their effort, they have their first ACC win and their 10th win of the season. "Now, we have to build off it," Brown said. Maybe some more workouts and a few more couch sessions for his teammates might pay off just as well.

Cavaliers finally claim ACC win
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
January 23, 2005

It had to wait to the very last second but finally ? finally ? Virginia notched its first ACC victory.

When a 3-pointer by Clemson's Sharrod Ford fell short of the rim, UVa men's basketball coach Pete Gillen jumped into midair and pumped his fists as he relished the 81-79 victory over the Tigers on Saturday night at University Hall.

"We're thrilled with the victory certainly. ? It's important to get the win. We needed something good to happen," said Gillen, whose team snapped a four-game losing streak in the process.

With the way Clemson shot from the perimeter Saturday night, Gillen had to think that it was not a good thing when Ford hoisted that trey. The Tigers, who entered the game next to last in 3-point shooting in the ACC at 31.8 percent, connected on a season-high 13 3-pointers in 30 attempts.

"It's like Murphy's Law. We've been hit with Murphy's Law lately. I was nervous that it was going to go in. Fortunately it didn't go in," Gillen said.

Devin Smith led the Cavaliers (10-6, 1-5 ACC), who shot a 57 percent for the game and 63 percent in the second half, with 22 points. Elton Brown had 16 points while Sean Singletary added 15 points and seven assists for the Cavaliers.

Clemson (10-8, 1-5 ACC) was paced Olu Babalola's career-high 22 points while Cheyenne Moore added 15 points.

After gaining a six-point advantage at intermission, Virginia held a steady lead through much of the second half until the final minutes.

Virginia led 81-76 after a pair of free throws by J.R. Reynolds with 33.3 seconds remaining but Babalola connected on the Tigers' 13th and final 3-pointer to cut it to 81-79. Reynolds then was sent back to the line but this time missed the front end of a one-and-one, setting up the final frenetic play that concluded with the 6-foot-9 Ford grabbing the ball in the corner.

Ford, who later admitted that he believed his team was actually down three points, stepped back behind the arc but his attempt fell woefully short and just glanced the rim.

"Obviously if he makes that we all go home happy," said Clemson coach Oliver Purnell.

Instead it was the Cavaliers that when home happy or at least relieved.

"We knew we had to get a win and protect our home floor. We had to stay positive," Smith said.

Brown was a little more emphatic.

"We were determined not to lose. Everybody came together to win this game and we had to do that," Brown said.

Virginia led 41-36 at intermission as Singletary and Smith each scored 12 first-half points. Neither team defended particularly well in the opening 20 minutes. Virginia shot 51 percent and Clemson shot 50 percent, including a sizzling 7 of 12 effort from behind the arc.

The Cavaliers have been dogged by poor performances to start the second half and they did allow Clemson to quickly erase that six-point advantage at the dawn of the second half. This time, however, the Cavaliers responded with an 11-1 run and when Reynolds hit a leaner in the lane, the Cavs held a 54-44 advantage.

The Cavaliers would never lose the lead, but certainly the Tigers' hot shooting kept them in the game. But in the end it was the 3-pointer that they couldn't make that gave Virginia and Gillen that "good thing" they needed most: a win.

"You can't win a couple games in a row until you win one in a row," Gillen said.

U.Va. pulls out first ACC win
Clemson rallies but misses late 3-pointer; Smith's 22 lead Cavs
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Jan 23, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Virginia's basketball team no longer sits alone in the ACC cellar. Keeping the Cavaliers company is Clemson, which lost 81-79 last night at University Hall.

U.Va., trying to avoid its first 0-6 start in ACC play since 1984-85, succeeded, but not before making the announced U.VA. 81 CLEMSON 79crowd of 7,838, which had braved the ice and snow, sweat through the final seconds.

With the score 81-79, Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds went to the line for a one-and-one with 13.5 seconds remaining. The 6-2 sophomore entered the game shooting 88.9 percent on free throws, and he'd made a pair 20 seconds earlier. This time, however, Reynolds missed his first attempt, and Clemson suddenly had hope.

On a night when the Tigers (1-5, 10-8) drilled a season-high 13 3-pointers -- their previous best was nine -- no one inside U-Hall would have been shocked to see them prevail on a last-second trey. Fortunately for Virginia (1-5, 10-6), the ball ended up in the hands of senior center Sharrod Ford, who'd never made a 3-pointer in his college career.

Ford, mistakenly believing Clemson trailed by three points, stepped back behind the arc in the right corner and launched a shot.

"If it would have gone in, we're all happy," Tigers coach Oliver Purnell said.

Ford's attempt hit the rim. Reynolds snared the rebound as time expired, and the Cavaliers -- and their fans -- finally could exhale.

"When I saw him step back and take the 3, I was like, 'What is he doing?'" U.Va. forward Devin Smith said with a relieved smile. "We were just fortunate that it didn't go in, because they were hitting a lot of shots."

Senior forward Olu Babalola, who came in averaging 5.7 points, made a career-best four 3-pointers and tied his career high with 22 points. Babalola's fourth trey, with 17.1 seconds left, pulled Clemson to 81-79. Virginia had led by seven with 3:20 left.

"We definitely didn't close the game like we needed to," said freshman point guard Sean Singletary, who contributed 15 points, seven assists and two steals for the Cavaliers.

U.Va., which snapped a four-game losing streak, is off until Thursday night, when it visits surging Virginia Tech (3-2, 10-6).

"It's important," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said of the first ACC victory. "We needed something good to happen. You can't win a couple games in a row till you win the first one."

The Cavaliers led by six at the break after outrebounding Clemson 18-12 in the first half. After intermission, however, the Tigers dominated the backboards, and they finished with a 35-29 advantage.

Clemson's defensive breakdowns negated its rebounding superiority. Virginia shot 63 percent from the floor in the second half and 57.1 percent for the game. Four Cavs scored in double figures, led by Smith (22 points). Senior center Elton Brown added 16 points -- six in the final 3:27, as U.Va. kept Clemson at bay -- and grabbed seven rebounds. Reynolds chipped in 11 points and tied his career high with seven rebounds.

"The night that we put together a pretty good shooting night, our defense wasn't as good," Purnell said. The Cavaliers "did it all over. They shot the 3, they got it into Brown, and they dribble-penetrated."

U.Va. committed only six turnovers, its fewest against an ACC opponent during Gillen's seven seasons as coach.

Clemson came in ranked 10th among ACC teams in 3-point shooting, but Virginia's defense, the conference's worst, has a way of bringing out the best in opponents. The Tigers sank 7 of 12 shots from beyond the arc in the first half.

"They were hitting everything," Smith said.

Benedictine High graduate Vernon Hamilton made his first start at point guard since Dec. 1 for Clemson. He finished with five points, five rebounds, three assists and only one turnover in 28 minutes.

 

UVa wins first in ACC play
By Andy Bitter / Lynchburg News & Advance
January 23, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Given the way Virginia’s season has regressed, the Cavaliers had every reason to expect the worst when Clemson’s Sharrod Ford took one giant step backward to attempt a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer Saturday night.

“Murphy’s Law. We’ve been hit with Murphy’s Law,” said Virginia coach Pete Gillen, who watched the Tigers rain down a season-high 13 3-pointers up to that point. “I was nervous it was going to go in.”

It didn’t. Ford’s 3-pointer fell woefully short, hitting the side of the rim as the backboard lit up and the buzzer sounded, and Virginia had held on for an 81-79 win over Clemson, its first in ACC play.

The Cavaliers avoided an 0-6 start in the conference, which they last did in the 1984-85 season.

“We needed something good to happen,” said Gillen, whose Cavaliers share the ACC basement with Clemson at 1-5. “We’ve had a lot of things happen. … You can’t win a couple in a row until you win one in a row.”

Virginia (10-6) went ahead 81-76 with 33.3 seconds left after a pair of J.R. Reynolds free throws. Clemson’s Olu Babalola, who entered the contest with four 3-pointers all season, answered with his fourth 3-pointer of the game at the other end to trim the lead to two.

The Tigers (10-8) fouled Reynolds again with 13.3 seconds left, but the sophomore missed the front end of a one-and-one. Clemson’s Cliff Hammonds got in the lane at the other end on a broken play and passed out to Ford, who, instead of driving to the basket, stepped back and released his first 3-point attempt of the game a split second before the buzzer.

It was Ford’s second attempt from beyond the arc this season. The senior has never made a 3-pointer in college.

“Obviously, we didn’t necessarily need a 3, but he opted for a 3,” Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell said. “If it had gone in, we’re all happy. Since it didn’t, I would have rather him taken it and gone inside.”

“I definitely did (think it was going to fall),” UVa freshman point guard Sean Singletary said. “They came down and got a good look. He definitely could have taken the ball to the lane. I guess he wanted to get out there for the win. We’re just lucky that it came out.”

Devin Smith scored 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting to lead the Cavaliers, who shot 57.1 percent from the field, their best mark this season and the first time they’ve topped 50 percent since ACC play began.

More importantly, Virginia hit shots when it needed to. After stretching a 41-35 halftime lead into a margin as big as 10 in the second half, Clemson twice trimmed the lead to three just under the eight-minute mark. The first time, UVa’s Adrian Joseph knocked down a 3 from the wing. The second time, Singletary, who finished with 15 points, hit a long 3 to make it 66-60.

The Tigers trimmed it to 68-66 on a three-point play by Babalola, who led Clemson with 22 points. But Smith responded with one of his three 3s to give UVa some breathing room.

“There hasn’t really been a night where a lot of us have been hitting our shots,” Smith said. “To come in tonight and for everyone to be clicking, that made everyone feel real good.”

Virginia forward Elton Brown finished with 16 points, 12 in the second half, seven rebounds and just one turnover.

After committing 15 turnovers in a 14-point loss to Maryland on Wednesday night, the Cavaliers were particularly protective of the ball. UVa had a season-low six turnovers Saturday, its fewest since a 1997 game against Wake Forest.

The result was a long-awaited win. Next comes Virginia Tech.

“We’ve obviously got a tough game Thursday at Virginia Tech,” Gillen said. “We’ll enjoy this game for a little bit and worry about the Hokies in about eight minutes.”


 

Virginia Notches Its First ACC Victory
Virginia 81, Clemson 79
By Michael Arkush
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page E07

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Jan. 22 -- The Virginia Cavaliers did not save their season or secure their coach's job Saturday night. One game is merely that, one game.

But, finally, mercifully, this beleaguered team recorded its first victory in the conference, and, well, it's a start. The Cavaliers dispatched the Clemson Tigers, 81-79, at University Hall.

Devin Smith leads Cavaliers with 22 points. "It was a great victory," Coach Pete Gillen said. (Andrew Shurtleff -- The Daily Progress Via AP)

There were, as usual, plenty of shaky moments. The Tigers (10-8, 1-5 ACC) narrowed the deficit to two on several occasions late in the game and had a chance to win it after J.R. Reynolds missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw situation with about 13 seconds left. Clemson, out of timeouts, rushed the ball downcourt, but Sharrod Ford missed an open three-point attempt from the corner just before time expired. The way this season has been going for the Cavaliers (10-6, 1-5), it seemed almost inevitable that Ford's shot would fall.

"I was nervous it was going to go in," Virginia Coach Pete Gillen said. "Fortunately, it didn't."

Gillen, who hasn't taken the Cavaliers to the NCAA tournament since 2001, stressed the importance of Saturday's contest.

"It was a great victory," he said. "You can't win a couple of games in a row until you win one."

The Cavaliers were almost flawless in their execution at the offensive end, committing only six turnovers, their lowest total against a conference opponent since Gillen took over in 1998. In Wednesday night's loss at Maryland, Virginia turned over the ball 15 times. The Cavaliers shot 57.1 percent from the field. Devin Smith led the way with 22 points, while Elton Brown finished with 16. Freshman Sean Singletary chipped in with 15, and had seven assists. Reynolds finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Clemson's loss extended its remarkable futility in conference road games. The Tigers have won only four of their last 52 ACC games away from home. Olu Babalola led the Tigers with 22 points, while freshman Cheyenne Moore finished with 15.

"Our guys played with a sense of urgency, but just couldn't get it done," Clemson Coach Oliver Purnell said. "We got a wide-open shot. We had a shot to win."

A 7-0 run, capped by T.J. Bannister's corner jumper, put the Cavaliers on top, 27-21. The Tigers stormed back with a spurt of their own to halt the Virginia momentum, but only temporarily. The Cavaliers responded with eight straight points to seize a 35-26 advantage.

The key basket was a three-pointer from Reynolds that barely beat the shot clock. At the half, Virginia led, 41-35, paced by 12 points apiece from Smith and Singletary.

The Tigers stayed in the game in the first half by making seven of 12 three-point attempts. Babalola was three for four, leading the Tigers with 11 points. Moore added 10.

For the Cavaliers, there is certainly a chance to build on this victory. On Thursday, they go on the road to play surprising Virginia Tech, which has won three straight conference games, including a win over No. 12 Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Two days later, Virginia hosts North Carolina.