National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Virginia 77, Clemson 73
When: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 14, 2017
Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, South Carolina
Officials: # Brian Dorsey, # Tim Comer, # Raymond Styons
Attendance: 9000

CLEMSON, S.C. -- If someone had informed Clemson Coach Brad Brownell that his team would score 73 points and force Virginia into 16 turnovers Saturday afternoon, he would have presumed his team would emerge victorious.

He would've been wrong.

Senior guard London Perrantes scored 25 points and hot-shooting Virginia held off Clemson 77-73 in an Atlantic Coast Conference game in front of a capacity crowd of 9,000 at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Perrantes made 8 of 15 shots, including 4 of 8 from three-point range, as the 19th-ranked Cavaliers defeated the Tigers for a sixth consecutive time and improved to 13-3 overall and 3-2 in league play. Virginia shot 58 percent from the floor.

Clemson dropped its fourth straight game to slip to 11-6, 1-4. It was the Tigers second loss in nine home games this season.

"London had a terrific game," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. "What a game. And I'm very thankful. I really am. That was a hard-fought game."

Virginia won despite committing a season-high 16 turnovers and allowing 73 points -- their second-highest point total surrendered this season. Clemson also became just the second team this season to shoot 50 percent or more from the floor against the Cavaliers.

But Virginia compensated by exhibiting a deft shooting touch itself. The Cavaliers shot 60 percent in the second half and made 10 of 18 shots from three-point range.

"That's a tough way to lose one," Brownell said. "We played well in a lot of spurts.

"I'm pleased with our competitive fight. Unfortunately we've got to find ways to win these games. It's the fourth league game that has come down to the last minute, and we've only won one. That's frustrating for all of us."

Perrantes, who leads Virginia in both scoring and assists, scored 14 of his points in the second half and keyed the Cavaliers' decisive late-game surge.

The game was tied at halftime, 36-36, but Virginia opened the second half with a 14-7 run and led by as many as nine, 60-51, before the Tigers clawed their way back in it.

Clemson eventually tied the game at 70-70 on a three-point play by senior forward Jaron Blossomgame with 2:18 remaining, but Perrantes responded with a three-pointer and a driving layup on the Cavaliers' next two possessions to give his team some breathing room.

"They grind you and they're so patient," Brownell said. "Some of it is that those guys are elite players and when you play against elite players, some guys are just going to be able to score. They really executed. We didn't make enough adjustments and do enough things individually to guard them well."

Blossomgame, who averaged 27 points in two games against Virginia last season, led the Tigers with 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting from the floor. He also paced Clemson with six rebounds.

Guards Avry Holmes and Gabe DeVoe each scored 15 points for Clemson.

Guard Marial Shayock added 17 points -- tying his career high – for Virginia, which also got a game-high 13 rebounds from forward Isaiah Wilkins.

"They kind of scored at will in the paint, and then the storyline would have been points off turnovers," said Bennett, whose team was outscored in the paint 42-18 and gave up 23 points off turnovers. "But we were good enough. I just kept telling them to dig in.

"When you go four guards you give up things, but you also get some things. And we were just trying to match it that way. Isaiah came up with a few big rebounds, 13 total, and that's significant. I thought Marial went back in there and speared a couple or grabbed a couple rebounds. We needed every possession and obviously I thought it was better in the second half.

"Defensively, we've got a ton of room for improvement. It's just not where it needs to be, but there are stretches where it's good enough."

NOTES: Clemson F Jaron Blossomgame has scored 20 or more points in four straight games and in 15 of Clemson's last 21 ACC regular-season games. ... G Avry Holmes ranks in the Top 10 in the ACC in both three-point percentage (.382) and free throw shooting (.788). ... Virginia C Mamadi Diakite ranks fifth in the ACC with 1.57 blocks per game. ... G London Perrantes is fifth in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.5.
Top Game Performances
 
Virginia   Clemson
London Perrantes 25 Scoring Jaron Blossomgame 22
London Perrantes 2 Assists Gabe DeVoe 5
Isaiah Wilkins 13 Rebounds Jaron Blossomgame 6
London Perrantes 5 Free Throws Made Avry Holmes 5
Kyle Guy 1 Steals Gabe DeVoe 4
Jack Salt 1 Blocks Elijah Thomas 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Virginia 77 58.0 10-18 9-13 9 29 2 2 16
Clemson 73 50.0 7-19 10-16 13 23 3 9 11