The UVA Basketball team (14-14, 7-10 ACC) hosts #13 Clemson (23-5, 15-2 ACC) at JPJ.
It’s odd to have Senior Day with another home game on the schedule after.
Maybe it’s because Saturday is the weekend.
The quick and dirty on Clemson:
- Four guys average in double-figures, led by sixth-year senior guard Chase Hunter (16.7 ppg, 47.9% FG, 42.8% 3FG).
- It’s an old team – four starters are seniors, and the rotation guys include another senior and three juniors.
- Clemson ranks 12th nationally in three-point shooting (38.9 percent) and 16th in adjusted offensive efficiency (1.211 points per possession).
- The defense ranks 28th (0.970 points per possession).
How Virginia matches up
Don’t @me for being crazy, but I don’t dislike the matchup for Virginia.
I can see Elijah Saunders (10.6 ppg, 5.1 rebounds/g, 42.0% FG, 37.2% 3FG) and Jacob Cofie (7.4 ppg, 4.7 rebounds/g, 49.4% FG, 25.0% 3FG) matching up well with Clemson’s four, Ian Schieffelin (12.9 ppg, 9.4 rebounds/g, 50.4% FG, 37.8% 3FG).
Brad Brownell goes with a three-man backcourt, like Virginia, and I like Virginia’s three-man backcourt against anybody (outside of Duke).
The glaring disadvantage is at the five spot, where we have Buchanan doing nothing over the past couple of weeks, and Clemson has 6’11” senior Viktor Lakhin (11.4 ppg, 6.1 rebounds/g, 50.4% FG, 38.6% 3FG).
If we don’t get Anthony Robinson back, the five spot will be trouble.
Pregame
Taine Murray gets the start in the backcourt on Senior Day, in the place of Dai Dai Ames.
Elijah Saunders and Blake Buchanan start in the frontcourt, with Jacob Cofie and Anthony Robinson (who participated in pregame warmups) coming off the bench there.
First half
First media timeout: UVA 10, Clemson 6, 15:57/1st
Virginia is 3-of-5 from the floor, with a pair of Isaac McKneely threes.
Even the two misses, threes by Saunders and Murray, were good looks.
Second media timeout: UVA 15, Clemson 11, 11:48/1st
McKneely is 3-of-3 from three. Clemson is eating us up in the paint. Need to get Robinson in the mix for some defense.
Third media timeout: UVA 21, Clemson 19, 7:51/1st
We may have just seen why Robinson isn’t going to get much time in this one. He just checked in, and Clemson ran a pick-and-roll at him, and his guy, Viktor Lakhin, got free on the back end and picked up the second foul on Saunders.
Fourth media timeout: UVA 27, Clemson 25, 3:37/1st
I like that Lakhin kid. Won’t play in the NBA, but he has really good footwork. Will put up nice numbers in the EuroLeague.
Half: UVA 32, Clemson 27
Obviously, good first half for Virginia, which led for 16:32 of the first 20 minutes.
The ‘Hoos shot 11-of-24 from the floor. Breaking it down: 5-of-10 from three, 4-of-4 at the rim, two other makes on jumpers in the paint.
Clemson was 11-of-28 shooting. Breaking that down: 7-of-14 at the rim, three makes on jumpers in the paint, 0-of-2 from three.
Virginia had 10 assists on its 11 made baskets (Rohde: four assists, no turnovers).
McKneely had 11 points (3-of-5 FG, 3-of-4 FG, 2-of-2 FT) and two assists.
Second half
UVA timeout: Clemson 40, UVA 39, 14:10/2nd
Virginia got out to an early 10-point lead, but Clemson responded with a 13-2 run.
Three offensive rebounds have given Clemson four more shots at the rim in the second half.
Second media timeout: Clemson 47, UVA 39, 11:27/2nd
It’s been 20-2 Clemson over the last six minutes.
In that stretch, Clemson is shooting 9-of-12; Virginia has one make (on five shots) with three turnovers.
Third media timeout: Clemson 54, UVA 48, 7:43/2nd
Virginia is hanging around, getting back into of late with threes from Rohde and Saunders, and a floater from Rohde.
Clemson has 42 points in the paint, and is 14-of-24 on shots at the rim.
Fourth media timeout: Clemson 61, UVA 50, 3:50/2nd
Some differences in the second half:
- Clemson has an 18-6 advantage on the boards (six offensive boards, eight second-chance points).
- Shooting 14-of-25 from the floor (9-of-12 at the rim).
Final: Clemson 71, UVA 58
Clemson trailed by 10 briefly in the early stages of the second half, but took control with a 20-2 run, held off a mini-‘Hoos charge a little later, and went on to post a 71-58 win on Saturday in JPJ.
It looked for a while that UVA (14-15, 7-11 ACC) was poised to pull the upset, leading for most of the first half, and opening the second half on a 6-0 run to go up 37-27 on an Andrew Rohde post bucket.
The 20-2 Clemson run over the next six and a half minutes turned the 10-point deficit into an eight-point lead.
Virginia did get the margin back down to two after a pair of threes, from Rohde and Elijah Saunders, and it was still as close as six inside of six minutes to go after a nice Isaac McKneely drive and layup.
UVA went scoreless for the next 4:13, allowing the Tigers (24-5, 16-2 ACC) to break the game open for good.
McKneely had 16 points (5-of-13 FG, 4-of-9 3FG, 2-of-2 FT) for Virginia.
Rohde and Dai Dai Ames each had 12 points.
Ian Schieffelin had 21 points (8-of-11 FG, 5-of-5 FT) and 13 rebounds.
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Chris Graham
