CLEMSON, S.C. -- Consistency is not a word that could be used to describe this Virginia squad. Four days after an exhilarating home win over No. 11 Boston College, Virginia's road woes continued Saturday, as the Cavaliers dug themselves an insurmountable hole early on and allowed unheralded Clemson to coast to an easy 90-64 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.
"It was a lack of maturity and discipline on our behalf," Virginia point guard Sean Singletary said in a somber post-game locker room. "We came off a good win and just weren't mature enough to come out here and get a good start on a team that is not as good as Boston College."
From the outset, the Cavaliers (14-11, 7-7 ACC) were hapless in the face of the pressure defense utilized by Clemson coach Oliver Purnell. Virginia's first-half trouble came largely in their inability to move the ball upcourt against Clemson's aggressive press. The Cavaliers turned the ball over 16 times in the first 20 minutes and a season-high 29 times overall.
The Tigers (16-11, 5-9 ACC) were able to capitalize on these miscues by scoring 18 points off turnovers in the first 20 minutes as well as another 18 in the second half. With 10:44 still remaining in the half, Clemson had already built a daunting 32-7 lead.
"Our full-court pressure defense in the first half obviously yielded a lot of dividends for us," Purnell said. "It's a big part of what we do."
It seemed only appropriate that as rain fell outside the arena, it also rained threes for Clemson inside. The Tigers came out with a hot shooting touch and drained seven of 12 first half three-point attempts. Senior guard Shawan Robinson knocked down three of those shots and led the Tigers for the game with 22 points.
The Cavaliers appeared to briefly stop the bleeding in the latter minutes of the first half when an Adrian Joseph three-pointer cut the Tigers' lead to 11 points, 46-35, at the intermission. Yet Virginia coach Dave Leitao was not comfortable with the situation.
"I thought we were in trouble," Leitao responded when asked of his thoughts at halftime. "But as I told the guys, we were three or four baskets from being into it. But we would have had to change the way we were playing and at no point in the second half did we play with any sense of urgency enough to change our fortunes."
The closest Virginia got in the second half was when junior guard T.J. Bannister hit a three-pointer at the 17:01 mark to narrow Clemson's lead to 49-40. Clemson forward Julius Powell responded with a put-in of a Robinson miss and the Tigers went on a 9-0 run over three minutes that effectively put the game out of reach for Virginia.
Singletary led the Cavaliers with 25 points on eight-of-15 shooting. Junior guard J.R. Reynolds scored in double digits for the 19th straight game, notching 16 points that included two three-pointers. Leitao was not overly concerned that Singletary turned the ball over nine times.
"We put a lot of pressure on him to be everything," Leitao said. "But he's less than perfect like we all are. I'll take his nine turnovers any day. That was more of him trying to force the issue because we were not playing well."
Junior forward Jason Cain scored only two points and played a mere nine minutes. He appeared to get into a verbal altercation with Virginia assistant coach Steve Seymour. Cain was held scoreless against Boston College and has not scored in double figures since recording 10 points Feb. 11 against Virginia Tech. Leitao was mum about the situation.
"I wasn't happy with the way he was playing, so I didn't play him," Leitao said.
Virginia has now lost six of seven conference road games. The team next travels to Chapel Hill for a Wednesday night matchup with North Carolina.
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