Clemson vs Virginia Tech Postgame Notes

by Press Release - Sun Mar 04 22:41:56 GMT-04:00 2007

Clemson Defeated Virginia Tech, 75-74 on Sunday afternoon. Here are some notes concerning the Clemson victory

Landmark Victory

*Clemson had a 1-70 record the last 20 years in ACC road games against teams that finished the year with a winning record in the ACC. Virginia Tech finished the year with a 10-6 league mark so that Clemson record improved to 2-70 with the Tigers 75-74 win on Sunday. The only Clemson win in the previous 20 years on the road against an ACC team that finished the year with a winning record was at Maryland in 1996-97.

*Virginia Tech entered the game ranked 21st in the nation

according to AP and USA Today. Clemson had lost 35 consecutive road

games against top 25 opponents and 43 consecutive games away from home against all opponents (road and neutral site). Again, the last road win over a top 25 team had taken place at Maryland in 1996-97.

*Clemson defeated Virginia Tech on the Hokies' Senior Day.

Clemson had a 12-35 record all-time on opponent Senior Days heading into this game. But, the Tigers have now beaten Virginia Tech on

Senior Day each of the last two years. This marks the first time

Clemson has beaten a team on Senior Day in consecutive years since the Tigers ruined Virginia's Senior Day three consecutive years from

1960-61 through 1962-63.

*Today's victory was the fourth ACC win by five points or less this year. That is the most league wins by five or less since the 1989-90 Clemson team won the ACC regular season title with a 4-3 record in such games. Clemson had 10 of its 16 league games decided by five points or less, the most in school history.

*Clemson had six of its eight ACC road games decided by five points or less, tied for the most in school history for a season.

Other Accomplishments

*Clemson finished the ACC regular season with three league road wins. This marks the first time since the 1996-97 season that Clemson has won at least three road games in a season. The Tigers were 4-4 that year under Rick Barnes. It is just the fourth time in 30 years that Clemson has won at least three ACC road games in the same year. The others are 1986-97, 1989-90 and 1996-97.

*Clemson finished the regular season with a winning record on the road, 6-5. It is the first time Clemson has had a winning overall road record since 1996-97 when the Tigers were 6-4. It is the fourth time in the last 30 years that Clemson has had an overall winning road record.

*Clemson finished the ACC regular season with seven ACC wins for the second straight year. The last time Clemson had back to back seven-win ACC seasons was 1996-97 and 1997-98.

*Clemson now has six wins over the RPI top 50. Entering today, Clemson had more RPI top 50 wins than eight of the top 25 teams in the AP poll, including Kansas, Texas and Memphis.

*K.C. Rivers scored the game winning shot with 18 seconds left according to the official play by play. It marked the third time this year Clemson had won a game with a field goal inside the last 20 seconds of play. Cliff Hammonds scored a game winner at Florida State with 2.8 seconds left and James Mays scored a game winner at home against Georgia Tech with 2.2 left in the very next game. Like today's game, that Mays shot gave the Tigers a 75-74 victory.

This is the first time since the 1986-87 season that Clemson has had three game winning field goals inside the last 20 seconds in the same season.

*Today marked the second time in three years Clemson has had a late game winning shot against Virginia Tech on a Senior Day.

Sharrod Ford had a dunk at the buzzer at Clemson to give the Tigers a

66-64 win on March 1, 2005.

*Today's victory also evened out a loss to Virginia Tech last year from a final score standpoint. Last year Virginia Tech won at Clemson in overtime by a 75-74 score thanks to a three-point shot at the end of regulation by Zabian Dowdell.

*Clemson won two close games to end the regular season, a 74-70 victory over Miami (FL) in overtime, and a 75-74 win over Virginia Tech on Sunday. It marks the second time this year Clemson has won two games in the same week by four points or less.

*Today marked the first time since February 4, 1987 that Clemson had won an ACC road game by one point. The Tigers downed Maryland 80-79 in that game 20 years ago in College Park.

Individual Accomplishments

*Cliff Hammonds went over the 1,000-point mark with his 17 points today. He needed 15 and went over the 1,000 point mark on a key three-point shot with 2;11 left that gave Clemson a 73-72 lead.

Hammonds and Vernon Hamilton both are now over 1,000 career points, marking just the second time in history Clemson's starting backcourt has each had at least 1,000 career points. The only other backcourt combo it do it at the same time is Terrell McIntyre and Greg Buckner in 1997-98.

*James Mays had two steals today, giving him 61 for the season. He broke the Clemson record for steals in a season by a Clemson frontcourt player. Devin Gray had the record with 60 in 1992-93. Mays already has the Clemson record for assists in a season by a frontcourt player with 79, 10 more than Andrius Jurkunas had in 1999-00.

*K.C. Rivers recorded 22 points in today's game on 8-11 field goal shooting, including 5-7 three-point shots. Rivers scored Clemson's last five points, including what proved to be the game winner with 18 seconds left. It was Rivers fifth 20-point game of the year, his first since he had 20 in the win over Georgia Tech on January 6. His five three-point goals were also his high total in an ACC game this year and his top mark since he had six against Western Carolina on December 23. Clemson is now 20-4 when Rivers scored in double figures and 1-5 when he does not.