Cavaliers send Tigers home with smothering performance, Clemson awaits NCAAs fate

Virginia controlled the action largely for the final 35 minutes of the game. (Photo by Merrell Mann)

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Fri Mar 10 23:42:33 GMT-04:00 2023

GREENSBORO - “We should be in.”

Clemson men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell repeated it four times with confidence in an answer regarding his team’s NCAA Tournament status after the Tigers’ 80-54 win over NC State on Thursday.

Two wins short of taking that decision out of the NCAA selection committee’s hands, his team will just have to wait and watch after second-seeded Virginia controlled the action in a 76-56 decision on Friday at Greensboro Coliseum. The defeat matched Clemson's worst margin of the season (also 20 at UNC last month).

Brownell's team entered the game projected among the “First Four Out” by ESPN and CBS Sports and the “Last Four In” by FOX Sports, now awaiting a NCAA Tournament fate as an at-large candidate (6 p.m. CBS on Sunday).

Clemson goes into postseason play with a 23-10 record.

The Tigers looked to run out of gas going into the halftime break.

Virginia (25-6) led the better part of the last 15 minutes of the first half, which included a 1-for-8 shooting run from the Tigers and an 0-for-5 scoreless stretch over the final four minutes of the session.

After 20 minutes, Cavaliers outscored Clemson 8-1 on second-chance points and 22-8 on points in the paint, using an 8-0 run to halftime to take a 12-point advantage. The Tigers were limited to 36% shooting and PJ Hall, who saw double-teams his way most times when targeted, connected on only two of six attempts for four points at the break.

Clemson’s woes continued early in the second half with an 0-for-4 shooting start – 0-for-3 from beyond the arc – as Virginia seized a 43-25 lead and prompted a Brad Brownell timeout.

The action from there tipped more in Virginia’s favor and Clemson’s frustration showed on the court, with a flagrant foul called on Ben Middlebrooks and a technical foul called later on Brownell.

"They played really well tonight," Brownell said of Virginia. "They obviously were clearly better than we were. We thought at times we were a little step slow, and some of it is stylistically playing them. They're probably the hardest team in the league to play against in terms of what it takes, consistency of effort and discipline. Their offensive movement is very good and taxing on you, and if you're just a little fatigued and wear down a little bit, you're going to get burned. I thought that happened to us some. I thought we got a little frustrated by some missed shots. I did think we had some decent shots for a while. Beginning of the second half, I thought we had some good ones.

"But I thought that probably took the air out of our sails a little bit. But they were just better, a little bit quicker to the ball, and they just played much better than we did tonight."

With those double teams on Hall, shooters from beyond the arc were left open, but Clemson struggled to take advantage, hitting just 30.4% there on the night.

Virginia’s Jayden Gardner scored 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, adding 12 rebounds. Hunter Tyson led Clemson with 15 points.

Clemson has still only won multiple games in a single ACC Tournament twice (1962 and 2008) and never won an ACC Tournament crown.

The Tigers moved up to No. 51 in the NCAA’s NET rankings after Thursday’s win, falling in a bid to tally a fifth NET Quadrant 1 win in Friday’s action.

After losing three games in a row in late January to early February, Clemson notched five wins in its final eight games, including a pair of Q1 wins over NC State at road and neutral sites.

"The 23 & 10, 33 games, you look at our complete body of work, I think there's plenty of wins home and away that show we can play with anyone in the country when we play our best. Obviously tonight wasn't a great showcase of that," Hall said. "I have to take a lot of responsibility for that. The first five out there, we didn't quite bring the heat we needed to. But if you look at some of the games we played this year, how we played on the road, how we played with backs on the ropes late in games and finished, there's not a doubt in my mind that we're one of the best teams in the country and belong in the tournament.

"I say that wholeheartedly, and there's nothing more to it."

"This team has worked so hard, and I can honestly say I feel like we've left it all out there. I'm not looking for sympathy," Tyson said on the same subject. "I'm just looking for recognition of what we've earned. Like coach said, if you really want the best 68 teams, we're one of them. And we'll have our fingers crossed on Sunday, but I truly believe we should get in.

"I believe our body of work has earned us a spot in the tournament."

The Cavaliers, ranked 13th nationally by the Associated Press, advanced on to the ACC title game versus four-seed Duke on Saturday (8:30 p.m./ESPN).