No. 13 Virginia holds on at home over Tigers

Virginia held Clemson below 60 points to snap a two-game losing streak. (Photo: Geoff Burke / USATODAY)

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Tue Feb 28 21:00:12 GMT-04:00 2023

The Clemson men’s basketball team enters March a little more desperate after an opportunity at an NCAA Tournament resume-building win came and faded away Tuesday night in Charlottesville.

The No. 13 Virginia Cavaliers (22-6, 14-5 ACC) pulled away to a 64-57 win over the Tigers (21-9, 13-6), which came in seeking a fifth NCAA NET Quadrant 1 win and a sixth conference road victory this season.

Clemson entered the night in ESPN NCAA Tournament bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s “First Four Out” of the field of 68. With consecutive wins over Syracuse and NC State last week, the Tigers rose to No. 60 in the NCAA NET rankings going into Tuesday.

Brad Brownell and the Tigers’ attention turns to the home finale with Notre Dame Saturday (8 p.m./ACCN) and securing a top-four conference finish for a double bye in next week’s ACC Tournament.

"(Saturday against Notre Dame) is a huge game. We understand that," Brownell said. "We've got to dust ourselves off and lick our wounds a little bit and have a couple good practices and get back at it. Send our seniors out with a good win. We've had a good home standing so far and hopefully we'll finish that out on Saturday."

Neither team dashed out of the starting blocks at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia missed its first eight shots, while Clemson started 1-for-9 from the field, but the Cavaliers mounted a 17-2 run to take their biggest lead yet 10 minutes in, going up 10.

First-team All-ACC candidate and Clemson graduate forward Hunter Tyson missed his first five shots, but his first made field goal rattled the rim a couple of times and fell in for three points and made it a four-point game with under eight minutes left in the half.

The gap closed to as few as two points, but Virginia went into the break up 28-23. PJ Hall and Tyson each scored seven points by halftime to keep the Tigers in range. Clemson’s score matched the lowest total after 20 minutes this season (at Boston College).

"There's such a fine line in a game like this. You gotta keep sticking with it and I think we did do that. But at the end of the day, you have to get some more fouls and create some more free throws and get a couple more balls in. And obviously, their defense is very good," Brownell said. "They disrupt you with their pressure. They have size and strength. They have mobility with other guys...They're disruptive, so it's hard to execute...To beat a team like this, who's a top-15 team on their home court in this environment...There was a lot.

"They were highly-motivated. We were highly-motivated. Our guys came in very confidently and I'm proud of them. Gotta get a couple more defensive rebounds...It's such a fine line and that's kinda what I told our guys."

Virginia slowly built on its lead in the second half as it continued to lock Clemson down defensively, where the Tigers started 2-of-8 shooting after the break in the Cavaliers constructing a 14-point lead over seven-plus minutes.

The Tigers cut the lead down to seven with a Tyson 3-pointer with over three minutes left and a Chase Hunter trey sliced the Virginia edge to four with 26 seconds to go.

With the ball and a five-point game, Brevin Galloway turned it over on a drive and Virginia’s Kihei Clark iced the game at the free-throw line.

"Virginia is a heck of a team now. This is a tough environment," Brownell said. "I thought our guys competed really well. Defensively we played pretty good...Their bench play was a difference...That's the difference in the game. Our bench didn't quite do that. But I'm proud of my guys. We got down 17-7 and we fought back. We're down 14 and we fight back, and all of a sudden it's a five-point game...We gave it to Brevin to create some space and he just lost the ball. It's a tough play and he's a great driver for us and we're trying to get him downhill and get to the rim and didn't execute."

The Tigers’ scoring was scattered outside of the Hall and Tyson duo, which accounted for 36 points (19 for Hall and 17 for Tyson), with the next in Clemson’s scoring being Hunter’s seven on 3-of-10 shooting. Virginia's bench outscored Clemson's 24-7.

Clemson was held under 60 points for the fourth time this season, a third loss in the category.

Virginia snapped a two-game losing run this season. Its only 2022-23 home loss came against No. 1 Houston.

"I thought our guys showed tremendous toughness. Kept competing and kept giving us chances and hanging around," Brownell said. "Sometimes on the road you just try to hang around and that's kinda what we did in these other games we were able to steal and tonight we weren't able to do that. Some of that is because Virginia's defense is really, really good."