A 12-2 Virginia run opened up a double-digit lead, but the Cavs had to fight off a Clemson rally to win 69-62 on Tuesday.
UVA (14-4, 3-3 ACC) led 31-28 at the half, and the 12-2 run over a 4:45 span made it 52-39 ‘Hoos at the 9:57 mark.
But the Tigers (12-7, 5-2 ACC) would not be done. An Avry Holmes layup with 3:38 to go cut the Virginia lead to 55-53.
Anthony Gill, saddled by foul trouble and immense difficulty keeping up with ACC player of the week Jaron Blossomgame, scored the two biggest baskets of the game, on a tipin of a Malcolm Brogdon miss at the 3:04 mark and a breakaway dunk 16 seconds later.
A three by Jordan Roper was answered by a free throw from London Perrantes and a pair of charity tosses by Devon Hall to leave the margin at six.
Blossomgame was fouled on a three-point attempt by Hall and made all three shots to get it back to 62-59.
Brogdon made two free throws, and Hall went 1-of-2 from the line to push the lead to 65-59 inside of 20 seconds to go.
A Donte Grantham three with 18 seconds left once again made it a three-point game. Perrantes, inbounding the ball, found Isaiah Wilkins behind the Clemson press for a wide-open dunk that extended the lead to five, and a pair of Brogdon free throws with 3.1 seconds left closed it out.
Virginia shot 54.3 percent (25-of-46) from the field and 4-of-7 from three-point range, but went just 15-of-22 at the foul line, with Perrantes, who was shooting 86.5 percent from the line coming in, connecting on just 2-of-7 from the stripe.
Brogdon had 20 on 7-of-11 shooting to lead the Cavs. Gill had 12 points on 4-of-9 shooting to go with five rebounds.
Hall had 11, and Wilkins had 10 points in 23 minutes off the bench.
Clemson got 23 from Blossomgame, who was 8-of-15 from the floor and 4-of-6 from three.
The Tigers, who had won five straight, shot 45.3 percent (24-of-53) from the floor and were 8-of-24 from three-point range.
UVA owned the boards, with a 32-21 advantage.
Virginia Team Notes
- Virginia is 72-52 all-time against Clemson and has won four straight against the Tigers; Tony Bennett is now 6-3 against Clemson
- Virginia is 29-1 in home ACC games the last four seasons
- Virginia is 11-1 when leading at the half
- UVA is 132-36 in 10 seasons at JPJ, including 94-20 under Tony Bennett
- UVA is 11-1 when out-rebounding its opponent
- Clemson did not have an offensive rebound in the first half and did not get its first offensive board until the6:25 mark in the second half; Clemson finished with two offensive rebounds
- Clemson’s two offensive rebounds marked the fewest allowed by UVA this year; Ohio State had three offensive rebounds in Columbus on Dec. 1
- Clemson committed seven turnovers, the fewest for a UVA opponent this; the previous low for a UVA opponent was eight, set by Notre Dame and Virginia Tech
- Virginia matched a season low by attempting seven 3-pointers; UVA also took seven shots from 3-point range against Miami
Virginia Player Notes
- Malcolm Brogdon scored 20 points, his eighth game of 20-plus points this season
- Brogdon moved up two spots to 21st on the UVA all-time scoring ledger with 1,436 points; he passed Lee Raker (1978-81, 1,423) and Jim Connelly (1965-67, 1,426) and needs one point to reach the top 20 at Virginia
- Isaiah Wilkins set a career high with 10 points, topping his previous high of eight points; his previous high in ACC play was seven points, set last season against Duke (1/31/15)
- Devon Hall scored 11 points – a career high in ACC play. His previous ACC best was nine points against Wake Forest last season (2/25/15)
- Anthony Gill scored 12 points and reached double figures in scoring for the 18th straight game this year
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