Story by Scott German
Years ago, legendary Clemson head football coach Frank Howard routinely refereed to playing the Virginia Cavalier football teams as “white meat” for his Tigers. If Howard were alive today and witnessed Clemson’s 82-51 enihaltion of Virginia Thursday night, he would have been hard pressed to find anything resembling meat about the Cavaliers.
Clemson, behind K.C. Rivers eight three-pointers, embarrassed an inept Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena.
The Tigers, down 6-2 in the opening minutes of play, took total command with a barrage of threes and dominant inside game. A 25-7 run by Clemson in just over six minutes blew open the ACC contest midway in the first half. During the spurt the Tigers connected on 11-of-13 shot attempts, seven of which were threes.
Leading 40-24 at the break, Clemson quickly erased any thoughts of a Cavalier comeback by starting second-half action outscoring the host 16-5 in the first six minutes, taking a 56-29 lead.
Virginia would go on to trail by as many as 38 before the final horn mercifully sounded. Co-champions of the conference with North Carolina last season, the Cavaliers (11-10 1-7 in ACC) lost their fifth straight game and for the eighth time in nine games.
Adrian Joseph scored 15 of the Cavaliers 24 first-half points and finished with 19. Sean Singletary had 14 points, but also was guilty of seven turnovers.
For the Wahoos, a porous inside game was clearly on display. Rarely did Virginia even attempt to work the ball inside. At one point in the first half, Virginia took 12 consecutive shots from at or beyond the three-point line — connecting on just one.
The Tigers (17-5 5-3 in ACC) recorded their biggest conference road win ever.
Virginia will travel to Winston Salem, North Carolina Saturday afternoon to face Wake Forest (2 pm. ABC-TV).
Scott German is a SportsDominion correspondent.
