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Virginia Falls At Home To Clemson, 73-64
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By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- Edward Scott scored 32 points and hit severalkey buckets down the stretch as Clemson dealt Virginia’s NCAA tournament hopesa serious blow with a 73-64 victory Tuesday night.
The Tigers (14-8, 4-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) ended a 10-game road losingstreak in the league dating to January 2002 and handed Virginia its secondconsecutive home loss after the Cavaliers started 10-0.
Virginia (14-10, 5-7) got 30 points from Devin Smith and 14 with 13 reboundsfrom Travis Watson, but played its second straight sluggish game, despite thehigh stakes, and allowed Clemson to sweep the season series.
The Cavaliers, who lost 78-77 at Clemson on Jan. 18, trailed by nine athalftime, got within three early and four late, but Scott hit about a 26-footerwith 3:19 left and scored eight of the Tigers’ last 13.
Chey Christie added 16 points for the Tigers, all but two coming in thefirst half, and Tomas Nagys had 11.
Scott’s evening included a piece of history, too, as his fifth of eightrebounds made him just the ninth player in ACC history to get 1,000 points, 500assists and 400 rebounds in his career. He had four assists.
Clemson led 59-46 with 7:13 left before Smith hit two free throws, EltonBrown hit two more and Watson swished a 3-pointer, just his fifth of theseason, to pull Virginia to 59-53 with 4:59 remaining.
Nagys followed with a free throw and Smith hit his sixth 3-pointer to makeit 63-59, but Scott let the shot clock get close to zero, stepped back at thetop of the key and swished his third 3-pointer of the game.
The Cavaliers, already in the penalty, had no chance to catch up.
The Tigers got scoring from only three players in the first half, but led41-32. Scott had 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, Christie had 14 and Nagysseven. Scott and Christie scored 24 of the Tigers first 26 points.
All three scored during a 9-0 run that gave the Tigers a 31-20 lead with5:27 left, and Virginia got no closer than seven before the half.
Smith had 15 points to keep the Cavaliers in the game.