Virginia outmuscles Tigers down the stretch
CLEMSON, S.C. — Hunter Tyson summed up Clemson’s 75-65 loss to Virginia on Tuesday night pretty well – the Tigers were not tough enough.
The Cavaliers, led by Jayden Gardner’s game-high 23 points, outmuscled the Tigers in the paint all night. Virginia had a 34-22 advantage in the lane and outscored Clemson 10-4 with second chance points.
The Cavaliers (9-5, 3-1 ACC) also frustrated Clemson forward P.J. Hall, while limiting him to just three points in the second half. It was quite the contrast from the Dec. 22 meeting in Charlottesville, when the Tigers humbled Virginia by 17 points, 67-50, to snap an 11-game losing streak to the Cavs.
“They were upset that we beat them at their place,” Tyson said after scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds in the loss. “Virginia has had a lot of success in recent years and what we did to them in Charlottesville does not happen. So, they were very upset about that.”
Virginia’s mentality showed up in the paint. The Tigers (9-5, 1-2 ACC) could not get a stop as Gardner had his way inside by either getting the ball in the bucket or finding his way to the foul line. He made 7-of-11 shoots, mostly at the rim, and he was 9-of-10 from the charity stripe.
Gardner scored 17 of his 23 points in the first half. Virginia shot 54.3 percent from the field as a team.
“I think we just need to be a little tougher around the rim,” Tyson said. “They made a lot of shots in there. We just need to keep it out there.”
While Gardner and the Cavaliers were having their way on one end, they were frustrating Clemson sophomore P.J. Hall on the other. Hall finished the night with 13 points, but he had just three points in the last 20 minutes and finished just 5-of-16 from the field.
“I thought they did a good job with P.J. I know they doubled him some. They were very physical with him, I thought,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “This was a good experience for him. He is going to be a great player in this league, but they made it hard on him and we have to continue to work with him.
“We prepared for the double-team all week, and we handled it just okay. So, that will be something we will have to continue to work on to get better at.”
The game was tied 15 times and had 15 lead changes, before Virginia took over in the final 6:51. They used a 10-2 run to gain control of the game, keyed when guard Kihei Clark dropped a three-pointer into the bottom of the net from the left wing, while falling away, for a 67-59 lead with 4:05 to play.
“We played a good team that executed extremely well tonight,” Brownell said. “Our defense was not as good as it was up there, and they capitalized on it. I thought our guys were fine. I did not think we were rusty or anything from the layoff.
“We missed a bunch of shots down the stretch that we are going to have to make in some of these games.”
Clemson will try to be tougher when it hits the road on Saturday and visits NC State in Raleigh. Tipoff is set for noon. Over/Under set at 69.5 according to Fanduel.
