Tigers snare rare road win
Point guard Edward Scott scores 32 points as Clemson wins in University Hall for only the fourth time in 25 visits.
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- One of Pete Gillen's favorite metaphors concerns slumping basketball teams and how there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.
Apparently, that doesn't pertain to his team.

Virginia, unbeaten at home until Saturday night, may be wounded past the point of salvation after 8 1/2 -point underdog Clemson came into University Hall on Wednesday night and won for only the fourth time in 25 visits, 73-64.

"We have to look at everything," said UVa coach Pete Gillen after the Cavaliers' third loss in a row, the last two at home. "We've got to play better. I wish I could explain it."

The Tigers (14-8, 4-7 ACC) exceeded their victory total from a 13-17 season in 2001-02 despite shooting 26.7 percent (8-for-30) from the field in the second half and 37.9 percent for the game.

The Cavaliers (14-10, 5-7) shot 27.6 percent from the field in the second half and 34.4 percent for the game. Junior guard Todd Billet, the team's second-leading scorer, was 1-for-9 from the field and made six turnovers.

Neither Billet nor senior postman Travis Watson, who was 5-for-14 and had five turnovers, spoke to the media after the game. Watson disappeared after receiving a call on his cell phone, while Billet did not look well and said he wanted to go home.

Billet suffered a cut on his forehead with 39.2 seconds remaining in the first half and required stitches after a shot of novocaine was administered. He missed his first six shots before draining a 3-pointer that cut Clemson's lead to 60-56 with 3:55 remaining.

The Cavaliers, who had trailed by 13 points with less than 7 1/2 minutes remaining, trimmed the deficit to four points on five occasions but never had the ball and a chance to get any closer.

The final blow came with 1:08 remaining, when Clemson senior Edward Scott found himself uncovered on the left wing and drove to the basket and converted a short bank shot to put the Tigers on top 70-64.

Scott finished with a season-high 32 points and played all 40 minutes -- the 10th time he has gone 40 or more minutes this season.

"In the first half, he was really terrific offensively," Clemson coach Larry Shyatt said. "He wooed everybody by making shots but he also guarded one of their best offensive players [Billet] for almost the whole game."

Billet earlier had scored 25 points in a 78-77 loss at Clemson, when the Cavaliers shot a season-high 59.2 percent from the field and Clemson shot 55.4.

Sophomore guard Devin Smith accounted for much of Virginia's offense on Wednesday night, finishing with a career-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers. Only five players scored for UVa, whose reserves were 0-for-8 from the field in a combined 50 minutes.

"This puts us in a big hole," said Smith, a junior-college transfer who needs little instruction on the realities of NCAA Tournament selection. "Now, we have to win just about every time out."

Virginia had no answer for Clemson's quickness during a first half in which only three Tigers scored. Scott had 20 points, backcourt mate Chey Christie pumped in 14 and reserve postman Tomas Nagys added seven as Clemson took a 41-32 lead into halftime.

The Tigers made only two of their first 15 shots to start the second half but Virginia wasn't much better, going 2-for-7 from the field and committing five turnovers in its first 12 possessions of the second half.

The Tigers had lost 11 consecutive ACC road games and had an overall record of 2-34 in ACC road games in Shyatt's five seasons. It was the first time in Gillen's five seasons that the Cavaliers had lost two straight games at home.

 

Cold Cavs fall again
Clemson sweeps series with U.Va.
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 19, 2003
CLEMSON 73 VIRGINIA 64
CHARLOTTESVILLE - Virginia's February fade continues. The Cavaliers last night lost for the fourth time in their six games this month, falling 73-64 to Clemson at University Hall.

The Tigers hadn't won at U-Hall since Dec. 7, 1996. This marks the first season since 1996-97 that they've swept their series with Virginia.

Once seemingly invincible at home, U.Va. (5-7, 14-10) has dropped two straight at U-Hall and seems determined to play itself out of contention for an NCAA tournament berth.

Last night, the Cavs rallied furiously from a 13-point second-half deficit and trailed by four with 1:28 left. But the Tigers (4-7, 14-8) scored the game's final five points, sending Virginia to defeat in a game it couldn't afford to lose.

Duke pounded Virginia on Saturday night, but the Blue Devils have been known to do that to teams, regardless of the venue. Clemson had lost 10 straight ACC road games before last night. The Tigers had Edward Scott, though, and Virginia had no answer for the senior point guard.

Scott abused anyone Cavaliers coach Pete Gillen put on him, scoring a season-high 32 points. Clemson's other starting guard, sophomore Chey Christie, torched Virginia for 14 first-half points and finished with 16.

For Virginia, sophomore swingman Devin Smith made 10 of 18 shots, including six 3-pointers, and scored a career-best 30 points. But the other Cavaliers were a combined 11 for 43 from the floor, and team's shooting percentage (34.4) was its lowest this season.

"We guarded the heck out of them, though we gave Smith some open looks," Clemson coach Larry Shyatt said.

Senior Travis Watson had 14 points and 13 rebounds, his eighth straight game with at least 10 rebounds. None of the Tigers had more than eight rebounds, but their collective works on the boards proved decisive. Twenty of Clemson's 44 rebounds came at the offensive end, and they turned them into 18 second-half points.

"I thought their rebounding was key, and Scott is certainly a tremendous player," Gillen said.

Smith and forward Jason Smith (2 for 3) were the only U.Va. players to hit more than half of their field goal attempts. Watson was 5 for 14, sophomore forward Elton Brown was 3 for 9 and, especially damaging to the Cavs, junior guard Todd Billet was 1 for 9.

Billet, who entered as U.Va.'s second-leading scorer, got his only points on a trey with 3:52 left. That pulled the Wahoos to 60-56. Scott answered with a 3-pointer, and then Smith responded in kind to make it 63-59. Clemson scored at least one point on each of its next five possessions, however, and Virginia never got closer than four.

Virginia trailed 41-32 after a first-half performance that drew scattered boos from the crowd of 7,423. Clemson scored 18 points in the first 4 minutes, 54 seconds. U.Va. couldn't stop Scott and Christie, who combined for 34 points, and it couldn't keep Clemson from grabbing offensive rebounds. Half of the Tigers' 20 first-half boards came at the offensive end, and they parlayed them into 12 points.

The Cavaliers shot 40.6 percent from the floor in the first half, and only Smith's spectacular play kept them from getting blown away early. The junior college transfer hit 6 of 8 shots from the floor and, with 15 points, had nearly half of Virginia's first-half total.

Billet, wearing his customary jersey No. 22, suffered a cut on his forehead with a minute left in the opening half and headed to the locker room, accompanied by trainer Sue Saliba, with his face covered by a towel. When he re-emerged at about the 16-minute mark of the second half, Billet was wearing No. 21.

He re-entered the game with 15:23 left and immediately turned over the ball on an inbounds pass. Billet's six turnovers offset his game-high six assists.

With 12:01 left, Virginia had a chance to cut its deficit to four, but Brown missed two free throws. Sixteen seconds later, Shawan Robinson's 3-pointer made it 49-40, and then Scott scored after a Billet turnover to give Clemson an 11-point lead.
 

ACC NOTES
Feb 19, 2003

GOOD AS ADVERTISED: No freshman entered the ACC this season with more hype than North Carolina's Raymond Felton. After a steady but unspectacular start, the 6-0, 195-pound point guard has demonstrated the skills that got UNC fans so excited when he signed his letter of intent.

In conference games, Felton is averaging 15.3 points, 6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals and leads the ACC in 3-point field goal percentage (45.3). He totaled 21 points, five assists and two steals in Carolina's win over Virginia last Wednesday and Monday was named ACC's rookie of the week.

The turning point in Felton's season, Tar Heels coach Matt Doherty said, might have come Jan. 26 against N.C. State. UNC lost 86-77 in Raleigh, but Felton made 8 of 12 shots from beyond the arc and scored 28 points.

"I feel like that game at N.C. State was where things started to click for Raymond," Doherty said, "and he started feeling comfortable running the team and picking his spots to score."

Felton's role changed when 6-9 center Sean May, another celebrated freshman, broke his foot Dec. 27 against Iona. May hasn't played since.

"With Sean around, I wanted the ball to go in to him first," Doherty said. "I didn't want to settle for jump shots, so Raymond was doing his job. Now that we don't have Sean, unfortunately we do have to rely on shooting the ball from the perimeter more."

PLAN B: After whipping Virginia, the Duke Blue Devils departed University Hall around 11:30 Saturday night. Sleet and snow were falling, and when the team arrived at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, it learned its plane wasn't cleared to fly, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski recalled yesterday.

So the Devils chartered a bus and set off on a long, slow journey to Durham.

"We got back about 5:45 in the morning, but at least we weren't snowed in," Krzyzewski said, "and we had that Sunday off. It turned out well for us."

SNOWED IN: Wake Forest's traveling party flew into Maryland on Saturday, a day before the Demon Deacons were scheduled to play the defending NCAA champion at the Comcast Center. As of 12:30 p.m. yesterday, the Deacons were still waiting for a flight home.

"I'm now a registered voter in Greenbelt, Md.," Wake's Skip Prosser said on the ACC coaches' teleconference.

After a winter stormed pounded the D.C. area, the game was postponed until Monday night, when Maryland whipped Wake 90-67.

"We played well," Terrapins coach Gary Williams said, "and Wake was in a tough situation, hanging around the hotel a couple days getting ready to play the game."

The situation wasn't ideal, Prosser said, but he told his players to keep things in perspective. After all, they were confined to a Marriott for several days.

"It's not like they're stuck on some hillside in the Himalayas," Prosser said.

PROFESSOR SMITH: Doherty, who played for Dean Smith at North Carolina, said he actively seeks advice from the legendary former coach.

"I call him literally after every game, and then some," said Doherty, in his third season at UNC. "I'm very fortunate to have that resource. Who wouldn't want to be able to call Dean Smith and get an evaluation of his team's play after every game? He's the best."

HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE: No. 8 Duke, 12-0 at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season, plays 13th-ranked Maryland there tonight. The Blue Devils haven't lost at home since Feb. 27, 2001, when Maryland beat them 91-80.

To win at Cameron, Gary Williams said, "I think you have to really come out ready to play. If you're not ready to play, you can lose it in the first four minutes."

MILESTONE: Maryland's win over Wake was Williams' 122nd conference victory as coach of his alma mater. That ties Williams with former Terps coach Lefty Driesell for fifth on the ACC's all-time list. Fourth is Bobby Cremins, whose Georgia Tech teams won 134 ACC games.

PULLING AWAY: Duke freshman J.J. Redick has established himself as the ACC's premier free throw shooter. Redick has missed only four times in 69 attempts, a 94.2-percent success rate.

Virginia junior Todd Billet, Redick's chief competition early in the season, has struggled from the line recently. Entering last night's game with Clemson, Billet had missed 5 of his past 11 foul shots and, at 86.8 percent, ranked third behind Redick and Wake sophomore Taron Downey (87.8). - Jeff White
 

And the swoon goes on
Cavs' late-season tumble continues
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published February 19, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Mathematically, it could still happen. Virginia could run the table, or maybe drop just one of its remaining five games to close on a roll. But after watching the Cavaliers lose at home to Clemson on Tuesday night, it's hard to imagine either of those scenarios meeting reality.

Unbeaten at home going into last weekend, Virginia dropped its second straight game in University Hall to all but sink its already-iffy NCAA tournament hopes. Clemson, which had lost its last 10 ACC road games, gained a 73-64 victory over the Cavaliers.

In losing its third straight game, Virginia (14-10, 5-7) fell into sixth place in the conference. The Cavaliers have five games remaining in the regular season: Wake Forest, Ohio and Florida State on the road; Georgia Tech and Maryland at home. With only 13 Division I victories, Virginia would figure to need at least four more to warrant at-large consideration.

"This puts us in a big hole," said swingman Devin Smith, who, with a career-high 30 points, accounted for nearly half of his team's total. "Now, every game is a must-win situation. Yeah, this puts us in a big hole."

They have only themselves to blame. Virginia shot 34.4 percent, and who knows how bad things would have gotten had Smith not hit 10-of-18 from the field. Travis Watson had another double-double but was 5-of-14 from the field. Guard Todd Billet, who took an elbow to the head near the end of the first half and was doped up on Novocain, was 1-of-9 from the floor.

"Some of the guys aren't playing their best basketball right now," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said.

The Cavaliers showed little signs of life until Clemson (14-8, 4-7) took its biggest lead at 59-46 on Sharrod Ford's jumper with 7:09 remaining. Virginia cut the margin to four points five times in the final 3:53, the last coming on Jason Clark's dunk with 1:27 remaining. But Clemson guard Edward Scott bumped the lead back to six with a runner off the glass, and the Cavs never scored again.

"We were down four with three minutes left," forward Elton Brown said. "We didn't get any stops. We need to learn to get stops at the end of the game."

Scott, maybe the conference's most-unheralded player, was the difference. Offensively, he had a season-high 32 points and eight rebounds in his 10th 40-minute game of the season. Defensively, he hounded Billet all night. Billet burned the Tigers for 25 points last month.

"Edward had command of the game," Clemson coach Larry Shyatt said. "He seemed to have a bop in his step the whole game."

Perhaps the game's key sequence came with 12:01 remaining and Brown shooting free throws with the Tigers' lead having been cut to 46-40. A 58-percent shooter, Brown missed both shots. Clemson guard Shawan Robinson then stuck a 3-pointer from the right wing. Chey Christie followed by stealing the ball from Billet in front of Virginia's bench and hitting a streaking Scott for a layup that made it 51-40 with 11:30 left.

A possible four-point game with Brown's free throws instead became an 11-point Tiger lead.

So is Virginia NIT-bound yet again? That's certainly the path it appears to be following, especially after losing at home to the No. 75 team in the latest RPI.

"Really, if we win a couple more games, and we win a couple in the ACC tournament, I think we'll be fine," Smith said.
 

Cavaliers Tumble To Sixth in ACC
By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 19, 2003; Page D07
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Feb. 18 -- Virginia continued to move closer to missing the NCAA tournament with a 73-64 loss to Clemson tonight, its third loss in a row.

Tormented throughout by Clemson guard Edward Scott, the Cavaliers sank to sixth in the ACC as the Tigers (14-8, 4-7 ACC) won for the third time in 37 conference road games and the first time in six years at University Hall.

Virginia (14-10, 5-7) will need to win three of its remaining four ACC games -- on the road against Wake Forest and Florida State and at home against Georgia Tech and Maryland -- to finish with an 8-8 conference record, a good barometer for making the NCAA tournament.

Scott, a 6-foot senior, scored a season-high 32 points to help Clemson break a string of 10 straight ACC road losses. Chey Christie scored 16, including 14 in the first half, and Tomas Nagys added 11.

Virginia's Devin Smith also set a season best with 30 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including 6 of 11 three-pointers. But his teammates made just 11 of 43 field goal attempts and allowed the Tigers to grab 20 offensive rebounds.

"Sometimes we're just watching the ball instead of finding somebody and boxing out," said Smith, a sophomore in his first year since transferring from junior college.

Clemson finished with an 18-8 advantage on second-chance points and scored 19 points off 14 Virginia turnovers. Junior guard Todd Billet, who got stitches and returned to the game after getting hit in the forehead with a minute left in the first half, committed six of those turnovers and scored three points on 1-of-9 shooting in 33 minutes.

"Teams are coming after us more at the point guard spot," said Coach Pete Gillen, who levied an indefinite suspension on starting point guard Keith Jenifer two weeks ago. "We've got to make some adjustments, see what we have to do. They're putting pressure on us and we're having trouble scoring. That's one of the problems. Some of our guys are just not playing their best basketball right now."

The Cavaliers trailed 59-46 after Clemson's Sharrod Ford (Gwynn Park) hit a jump hook with 7 minutes 15 seconds remaining, but they charged back and cut the deficit to 60-56 when Billet made his only field goal, a three-pointer from the top of the key.

Scott answered after a timeout with a deep three-pointer with three seconds left on the shot clock. Smith came right back with another three, then made a pair of free throws after Christie hit a leaner. At the final officials' timeout with 2:40 left, Clemson led 65-61.

Virginia forced Christie to miss a short jumper on the next possession, but Nagys grabbed the rebound, was fouled and made one of two free throws. Nagys returned the favor with two minutes left, fouling Travis Watson, who also converted 1 of 2 from the line to cut it to 66-62.

Jason Clark's baseline dunk was answered immediately by Scott, who drove for a short bank shot that pushed Clemson's lead back to 70-64 with 63 seconds remaining. Virginia needed three-pointers and found none.
 

Same Old Song For UVa In Loss To Clemson
By Chris Wallace
Date: Feb 18, 2003

If you were anywhere in Central Virginia on Tuesday night you probably heard a large popping noise at around 10:15. If you were wondering, the sound you heard was the Virginia men's basketball team's NCAA Tournament bubble bursting. The Clemson Tigers, winless on the road in the ACC, rolled into University Hall and dominated the Cavaliers to the tune of an improbable 73-64 win.

Ed Scott scored 32 points for the Tigers who out-played, out-worked, out-coached and out-hustled a listless Cavalier outfit. The loss was the third in a row -- with each being of the ugly variety -- and fourth in six games for Virginia, which now looks destined for yet another trip to the NIT, although a few more wins will be needed to secure that invite.
Virginia opened the game with a 7-2 lead but after that it was all Tigers, as Scott and his backcourt mate Chey Christie, who scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half, scored at will in the opening 20 minutes. Clemson led 41-32 at the half and stretched its lead to as many as 13 after intermission, despite struggling on offense in the second stanza. But it didn't matter as the Cavaliers, who did get as close as four with about three minutes to play, jacked up ill-advised shots and turned the ball over repeatedly in the closing stages of the game.

Devin Smith scored a career-high 30 points for UVa in the loss, and Travis Watson added 13 points and 14 rebounds. Junior Todd Billet, however, suffered his worst night as a Cavalier in the loss. In addition to sustaining a head wound courtesy of an inadvertent Watson elbow, Billet scored just three points on 1-9 shooting and turned the ball over six times. However Billet, as he always seems to do, played very hard. He just played very poorly.

But in a continuing trend that has become a source of frustration for the Virginia faithful, the Cavaliers played with little intensity. The defense was again subpar and the rebounding atrocious as the Tigers grabbed 20 offensive rebounds on the night.

Virginia now must play three consecutive road games and sadly that may be a good thing. The criticism of Pete Gillen will reach new heights after this setback, and the fifth-year head coach may have supplanted Clemson's Larry Shyatt as the ACC coach perched atop the hottest seat. Gillen's record over the course of his tenure in Charlottesville is not the problem. But the direction of the program would have to be considered unsettled at best and, more importantly, he's rapidly losing the support of the fans. And we'll all find out in the next three games if Gillen has lost his players.

All in all, things are looking pretty bleak right now for the Virginia basketball team and its fans. At this point, any further analysis would simply be overkill.


 

Tigers roar past Virginia, scoring rare conference road win, 73-64
Jonny Schwab
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

Playing at home just isn't the same anymore.

After the 78-59 loss to Duke last Saturday, the Cavaliers appeared to have as meager a challenge as they could handle in eighth-place Clemson (13-11, 4-7 ACC), who had come into the game with an 0-4 road record in the conference.

Clemson reinforced the unpredictability of the ACC, grabbing the lead in the opening minutes and holding off the Cavaliers' attempted second-half comeback to secure a 73-64 victory last night.

When these two teams met in Clemson on Jan. 18, Todd Billet's 25 points and career-best seven three-pointers could not save the Cavaliers in their one-point loss, nor could guard Keith Jenifer's attempted game-winning three-pointer.

This time it was the guards of Clemson who provided the early attack for the Tigers. Both squads kept up a steady pace in the early minutes of the game, with sophomore forward Elton Brown leading the Cavalier attack. Brown scored seven of Virginia's first nine points, but the perimeter attack and offensive rebounding of Clemson guards Edward Scott and Chey Christie pushed the Tigers' 8-0 run to give them an early 15-9 lead.

The duo would combine for a total of 34 points in the first half -- two more than the entire Virginia team. For Clemson, all but one player in the lineup had at least two rebounds in the first half -- 10 of which were on the offensive glass.

"Clemson did a great job early in the game," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "They were on fire. We had trouble scoring and they hurt us on the offensive boards."

Sharp shooting was present for the Cavaliers in the name of Devin Smith. Smith was 6-of-8 from the floor in the first half, hitting on all three of his three-point shots to score 15 of the Cavaliers' 32 points.

A quick hoop by center Travis Watson and a three by Smith pulled the Cavaliers within four points with just under two minutes gone by in the second half, but that was as close as Virginia would get.

Smith continued to produce and tried to fill gaps where Virginia's offense was lacking, scoring a career-high 30 points -- the most of any Cavalier since Roger Mason, but it was not enough.

"Sometimes we were just caught watching the ball," Smith said. "They were a lot bigger team than us, and not putting a body on them and boxing them out really hurt us."

Christie cooled off in the second half for the Tigers, but Clemson still had an answer for everything that Virginia threw at them, and more often than not it was Scott. The six-foot guard not only led the Tigers with 32 points but also grabbed eight rebounds, bested only by Watson's 13.

Finally able to make a decent run, Billet found the three-point range he'd been missing all game to cut the score to 60-56 with just under four minutes to play.

Scott replied back with a three of his own, and then Smith connected from long range to cut the lead to four once again. Aside from a dunk from Jason Clark, however, the Cavaliers would not hit a field goal for the rest of the game, and Clemson ended on an 11-5 run.

This was Virginia's second consecutive home loss -- and only the team's second defeat of the season at University Hall.

With the loss, the Cavaliers fell to 5-7 in conference play and are on the outside looking in at an NCAA tournament bid. Virginia next travels to Wake Forest Sunday.