Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992 TAG: 9201230249
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CLEMSON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
CLEMSON KEEPS GRIP ON CAVS
Despite winning only two of its previous 19 ACC basketball games, Clemson hadn't forgotten how to beat Virginia.The Tigers played zone defense from the opening tap Wednesday night and held UVa to its lowest scoring output of the season in a 51-48 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.
UVa, which trailed 44-34 with 4:56 remaining, missed two shots to take the lead in the final 24 seconds and had a desperation 3-pointer fail at the buzzer in dropping to 8-7 (2-3 in the ACC).
It was the fifth time in their seven losses the Cavaliers have led in the second half, but Clemson never trailed after a pair of free throws by Kevin Hines made it 34-32 with 10:17 left.
It was the first conference victory in four games for the Tigers, who are 9-4 overall. Clemson was last in the ACC last season with a 2-12 conference record.
"I admired the way the Clemson players came out and played with intensity and enthusiasm," said Virginia coach Jeff Jones. "We had some guys, for one reason or another, who weren't ready to play."
Nevertheless, the Cavaliers held the opposition under 60 points for the third game in a row and fourth time in five games. Virginia outrebounded the Tigers 41-33 but shot a season-low 33.9 percent (20-of-59) from the field.
"The 33.9 would have been good enough to win if we had done the other things," Jones said. "In fact, [the percentage] wouldn't have been 33.9 if we had done the other things."
The Cavaliers took a 7-0 lead and led by six points on several occasions before falling behind 23-20 at the half. UVa failed to score on seven possessions in the 4:56 before halftime.
"When we jumped out to that 7-0 lead, we thought it would come easy and stood around and played our version of H-O-R-S-E," Jones said. "The telling statistic at the half was we only had four fouls."
Post players Ted Jeffries and Junior Burrough did not have a field goal and also did not have a foul, although Jeffries did have a game-high nine rebounds.
"[The post offense] was non-existent," Jones said. "That was something we've seen repeatedly this season. We put the ball down low and come away with nothing."
Clemson center Sharone Wright, a 6-foot-10 freshman, had something to do with that. Wright had four blocked shots to go with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Hines finished with 11 points, as did Andre Bovain, who spent much of the game guarding Bryant Stith in Clemson's box-and-one defense. While Bovain or Steve Harris guarded Stith, the other four players were in a zone.
"I thought we had great shots," Jones said. "We practiced against the box-and-one and the triangle-and-two for an hour or more [Tuesday]. We knew they would use it."
The Cavaliers traditionally have struggled against zone defenses, but seldom as badly as they did Wednesday night, when they scored 14 points in one span of 20:03.
UVa got back in the game behind senior guard Anthony Oliver, who scored nine of his 13 points in the final 3:06, including a jumper with 1:08 to cut the deficit to 49-48.
A backcourt violation turned the ball back to Virginia with 1:02 remaining, but Doug Smith was short on a 3-pointer from the corner with 35 seconds left.
Clemson gave UVa another chance when Chris Whitney missed a pair of free throws with 23.5 seconds left, but Stith was long on an off-balance jumper from the lane with four seconds left.
"I tried to get into the defensive man's body to create contact and draw a foul," said Stith, held to a season-low 11 points. "It was a no-call. The man [Bovain] played very good defense."
Freshman Cory Alexander led the Cavaliers with 16 points before fouling out with 2:06 remaining. After official Stan Rote whistled Whitney for stepping on the sideline, he was overruled by Rusty Herring, who called Alexander for a push on the play.
The Cavaliers entered the game as a six-point favorite and Jones had stressed the importance of going to North Carolina on Saturday with a three-game winning streak.
"There's still plenty of basketball left," he said, "but you've got to make a stand at some point." \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition and a different version ran in