Tigers Trounce Cavaliers

In a critical road game at Clemson, Virginia was sluggish on defense, turnover-plagued on offense, and behind on the scoreboard from the opening minute. The Tigers forced 29 turnovers and shot 52 percent from the floor to prevail 90-64. The 90 points are the most allowed by the Cavaliers this season.

Sean Singletary led Virginia with 25 points at Clemson.

A slow start doomed the visiting Hoos from the beginning. CU jumped out to an 8-2 lead when UVa coach Dave Leitao used his first time out. That margin ballooned to 16-3 when Leitao stopped play once again with less than 16 minutes to play.

It still got worse.

Shawan Robinson, who led the Tigers with 22 points, hit three 3-pointers as Clemson piled on the points for a 32-7 advantage in the early going. The Tigers hit 7 of their first 10 3-pointers as they blew open the lead. The hosts finished 9 of 20 on 3-pointers (45 percent).

“The fact that we were able to get a big working margin in the first half, it’s a long way back. As long as you stay tough, it is going to be hard for that team to catch up with you,” Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said on the Virginia Sports Network broadcast. “If you let up, kind of like we did the last three minutes of the half, and you’re not tough and not really getting after it, teams can catch up with you.”

Indeed, Virginia finally came to life in the late moments of the opening half, slowly cutting into the lead as halftime approached. The Cavaliers outscored the hosts 28-14 down the first-half stretch. Adrian Joseph capped the mini-surge with a 3-pointer from the left corer to make it 46-35.

After halftime, Clemson scored first on another Robinson 3-pointer, but UVa made another push to get within single digits. T.J. Bannister’s 3-pointer cut the CU advantage to 9 points at 49-40 with 17:06 remaining and it looked like Virginia might make a game of it in the second half.

But the Tigers immediately responded to push the lead back to 58-40. That 9-0 run came behind a strong showing on the offensive glass, a theme that carried throughout the game. CU won the battle of the boards 34-32, including a 14-7 advantage on the offensive end.

Julius Powell led the way with 4 O-Boards, while Raymond Sykes had 3. Steve Allen, K.C. Rivers, and Akin Akingbala posted 2 offensive rebounds each.

“They out-rebounded us by 18 up there and we thought that was going to be one of the keys for the game,” Purnell said. “We needed to rebound the weak side, and not just our big guys but also our guards. Also, we challenged our big guys to get the ball deep, be physical, get down there and not float around 7 or 8 feet from the basket.”

The offensive rebounding combined with Virginia’s 29 turnovers to negate any hopes of a Cavalier comeback as Clemson cruised to the victory in the final 10 minutes. In total, the Tigers scored 36 points off of Cav turnovers.

Sean Singletary led Virginia with 25 points on 8-of-15 shooting. He also had 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 9 turnovers. J.R. Reynolds added 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. The rest of the team combined for 23 points on 7-of-24 shooting.