The first 13 minutes, 34 seconds of Tuesday’s Atlantic Coast Conference tilt between No. 2 Virginia and No. 18 Clemson was like a boxing match, each side exchanging blows. The home-standing Cavaliers opened with a 7-0 spurt. The Tigers, playing their first game without injured senior forward Donte Grantham, answered with an 11-0 run. UVA bounced back with another 7-0 run. Clemson responded again, this time outscoring the Cavs 9-0 to grab a 20-14 advantage, prompting head coach Tony Bennett to burn a timeout.
After the timeout, a Devon Hall 2-point basket was followed up by a 3-pointer from Grantham’s replacement, Aamir Simms, a local product from nearby Blue Ridge School (St. George, VA). Trailing 23-16, Virginia delivered the final blow of the first half – an 11-0 run to capture a 27-23 halftime lead.
Shaky at times in the first half, Virginia and its Pack-Line D delivered a resounding and methodical knockout in the second half on its way to a 61-36 victory. The Cavaliers smothered Clemson into just 13 points on 25% shooting in the second half. Meanwhile, Virginia’s offense picked up, and a good old fashioned Cavalanche had ensued. Clemson didn’t reach the 30-point mark until 5 minutes and 44 seconds remained. By then, Virginia had gone up 20.
“[Tony Bennett] said it was a real blue-collar game,” sophomore point guard Ty Jerome said. “So, we needed to roll up our sleeves and just fight it out, be physical, be who we are. That was his message to us after the Wake Forest game too. A lot of times, at this point in the year, teams start slipping a little bit on the things they do best so we wanted to turn the screws back just a little bit and get back to who we really are. That was the talk at halftime and we did a good job of executing in the second half.”
Hall scored 14 points and sophomore Kyle Guy added 12 to lead a balanced scoring attack by the Hoos, who received points from 10 different players. After a scoreless first half, Jerome contributed eight second half points. Redshirt junior center Jack Salt scored six. De’Andre Hunter (seven) and Nigel Johnson (four) led the Cavalier bench, which outscored the Tigers’ bench, 18-8.
Virginia made 50% of its field goals and 5-of-10 from 3-point range in the second half, an improvement of 39.3% shooting in the opening 20 minutes. Clemson, which made nine of its first 17 shots from the floor, missed its final six shots of the first half and went 6-of-24 from the field in the second. (That’s 20% shooting in the final 26 minutes, 26 seconds of the game.) The Tigers’ two leading scorers, Marcquise Reed and Shelton Mitchell, mustered only six points on 3-of-13 shooting. The duo averaged 28.2 points per game coming in.
Clemson’s 19 turnovers resulted in 25 Cavalier points. Led by Jerome with four, Virginia amassed 14 steals. The Hoos added seven blocks and controlled the boards, 35-28.
“[Ty Jerome] today, his activity with his hands was amazing,” Hall said of his teammate. “He really helped us because sometimes they would get around a ball screen, and him being active with his hands really helped us.”
UVA’s dominant second-half defensive effort came primarily with one of the nation’s top defensive players, Isaiah Wilkins, on the bench for the game’s final 16:45. Wilkins, who played 18 minutes in the first half, suffered a back injury. Coach Bennett had no definitive update postgame; however, he did say Wilkins wanted to come back in. With the Cavaliers rolling, though, there was no need.
Forward Mamadi Diakite picked up the slack. The 6’9” redshirt sophomore hadn’t played double-digit minutes in five straight games and played only three minutes in the first half tonight, but he responded in a major way with Wilkins on the bench, showing off is substantial athletic prowess. He totaled three blocks and had two steals while also impressing his coach with his defensive positioning. Bennett called tonight’s performance the “soundest” Diakite has been defensively.
In general, “I thought in the second half, that was some of the best defense we’ve played,” Bennett said. “They had a couple of careless turnovers on their part and we turned them into points. Without Donte Grantham, that’s a huge blow in their first game. They were really good early and had some breakdowns. I want to acknowledge that because Brad has done a terrific job. They are a well-coached team, but that’s a hard blow. In saying that, I don’t want to take away what I thought our guys did, especially in the second half defensively. I thought they were so active with their hands. Mamadi (Diakite) gave us some lift and everything was contested. It was physical. They kind of punched us in the face a little bit in the first half and we were a little sped up and stretched out. We then righted the ship and played some of our better defense. They were a little fatigued, but I like how our guys responded.”
Tonight’s win is Virginia’s 11th straight and gives the Hoos a 19-1 overall record, 8-0 in the ACC. All eyes now turn to Durham, North Carolina, where Virginia will take on No. 4 Duke in Cameron Indoor on Saturday, January 27 at 2 p.m. CBS will televise.
“This game Saturday was the one everybody circled at the beginning of the year,” Guy said. “It is going to be a really good test for us and we are really looking forward to it. Our defense was great this second half, so that is good momentum and a boost going into that game.”
– Final Stats
– Game Highlights
– Tony Bennett Postgame Press Conference
– Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome Talk To The Media
