Tiger Rally Falls Short Despite 43 from Solomon |
CLEMSON, SC -- It's tempting to say Virginia coach Pete Gillen ignored Will
Solomon and dared the rest of Clemson's team to beat Virginia on Saturday. But he didn't. Gillen threw everything he had at Solomon, who still scored 43. Solomon threw up shots from nearly every place on the court and gave Clemson some life after a dismal start. Virginia (11-5 overall, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) survived, though, with a 98-91 win over the Tigers in front of 8,000 at Littlejohn Coliseum. "It was a monumental win for our team," said Gillen, who was sweating buckets after watching Solomon lead Clemson (6-10, 0-4) back from a 22-point deficit. "We couldn't stop Will Solomon," said Gillen. "We recruited him, so at least that shows we know who to recruit sometimes. He's a great player, but he shouldn't get 43 points. That's not good." Solomon scored the most points by a Clemson player since Butch Zatezalo scored 43 against N.C. State in 1970. He hit 14 of 21 shots, eight of 12 3-point attempts, to lead a second-half rally. Solomon scored 27 points in the final 12:31 of the game. "He had to receive the ball against the press and organize the defense and guard one of the best guards in the nation," said Clemson coach Larry Shyatt. "There is a line item, assists to turnovers, that doesn't look that good and at one point he lost his cool, as did his coach, but he regrouped." Clemson trailed by 18 at the half after falling apart in the final seven minutes of the first half. And it appeared that Virginia was going to continue to run away with the game after taking a 57-35 lead on a put-back by Travis Watson with 17:56 left in the game. However, Pasha Bains scored ten points during a 12-7 Clemson run that cut the lead to 17. Solomon then started a 24-12 Clemson run with a 15-footer. Virginia went cold against Clemson's zone while Solomon hit four 3-pointers during Clemson's run. Adrius Jurkunas hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut Virginia's lead to 79-74 with 3:30 left in the game. Chris Williams hit a 3-pointer to put Virginia up 79-71 with 3:56 left and Roger Mason was fouled attempting a 3-pointer with 2:58 left. Mason hit all three free throws to give Virginia an 84-74 lead. "I thought the Mason free throws in the corner was a very, very big call because we rebounded and it's a shot on our terms and I'm not permitted to talk about fouling, period," said Shyatt. Clemson started fouling and Virginia hit 14-19 free throws in the final two minutes. "I wouldn't have been stunned if we had missed them on the road with the crowd and all," said Gillen. Clemson did not get any closer than four points in the final two minutes, but the Tigers did find some life. "We looked better at the end of all the chapters today," said Shyatt. BOX SCORE VIRGINIA
FG 3PT FT Reb
CLEMSON
FG 3PT FT Reb
No Player Min M-A M-A M-A O-D-T A PF ST TO BK PTS
55 Adam Allenspach 29 5-11 0-0 6-8 3-4-7 2 2 1 4 0 16
3 Andrius Jurkunas 33 1-7 1-2 0-0 2-6-8 3 4 0 6 1 3
42 Chucky Gilmore 31 2-6 0-0 0-2 5-7-12 4 5 0 0 3 4
15 Will Solomon 37 14-21 8-12 7-10 0-9-9 3 4 1 7 1 43
33 Pasha Bains 36 5-11 2-6 4-5 1-2-3 1 2 1 4 0 16
31 Tomas Nagys 8 1-1 0-0 5-5 0-3-3 1 2 0 1 0 7
0 Walker Holt 19 0-0 0-0 2-2 0-2-2 2 5 0 2 0 2
21 Ray Henderson 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0
32 Arturus Javtokas 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 J.D. Powell 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 200 28-57 11-20 24-32 11-33-44 16 24 3 24 5 91
Percentages: FG .491, 3PT .550, FT .750.
Team Rebounds: 4.
Team Turnovers: 0.
Virginia 50 48-98
Clemson 32 59-91
Officials-Karl Hess, Leslie Jones, Jamie Luckie.
A-8,000
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