Clemson falls to Virginia, gets eliminated from ACC Tournament

GREENSBORO, N.C. — NC State coach Kevin Keatts mentioned after his team lost to Clemson for a third time this season Thursday night that sometimes a team is simply a bad matchup for you.

Clemson faced its version of that team 24 hours later in the ACC Tournament against Virginia.

The Cavaliers pounded Clemson 76-56 in the semifinals of the ACC tourney to set up a stressful next several days for the Tigers ahead of Selection Sunday.

Clemson shot only 35.8 percent from the field while falling to Virginia for the third consecutive time. Tigers coach Brad Brownell is now 3-16 all-time against the Cavaliers.

“Congratulations to Virginia. They played really well tonight. They obviously were clearly better than we were. We thought at times we were a step slow, and some of it is stylistically playing them,” Brownell said. “They’re probably the hardest team in the league to play against in terms of what it takes, consistency of effort and discipline. Their offensive movement is very good and taxing on you, and if you’re just a little fatigued and wear down a little bit, you’re going to get burned.”

While Clemson struggled from the field, the Cavaliers shot 50 percent — led by Jayden Gardner, who finished with a game-high 23 and 12 boards.

Armaan Franklin added 16 points and Kihei Clark scored 13 with 3 rebounds and 4 assists.

“It’s just constant movement, and there’s a wearing effect. You get a little bit behind and it’s on any kind of cut, and there’s going to be a crease,” Brownell said. “And whether it’s a shot off the cut or a drive off the cut, a lot of times it’s a drive off the cut that puts you behind, and now you’re kind of in some rotations. We got put in some rotations in the first half and we had trouble blocking out bigger players, so they hurt us on the glass.”

Virginia had double the second-chance points of Clemson — 14 to 7, and had 40 points in the paint, compared to 22 for the Tigers.

Clemson starting point guard Chase Hunter was only 2-for-9 from the field, and Clemson’s big four of Hunter, PJ Hall, Hunter Tyson and Brevin Galloway combined to shoot 15-44.

“It’s hard to score against them, and you’ve got to really work physically to cut hard, screen hard, move the ball quickly and attack a close-out,” Brownell said. “To score on them, it’s challenging. So you’re using a lot of energy on both ends. And when you play this team after playing the night before at 9:30, it’s probably doubly hard unless you get off to a good start, get your crowd into it, make some shots, get your juice going. And we just couldn’t get enough of that going in this game to sustain it.”

Despite the loss, Brownell still believes his team deserves an NCAA Tournament berth. The Tigers are squarely on the bubble, even with a 23-10 record and after earning the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament.

“We were .500 or better in those Quad 1 games. There’s teams that they have in the tournament ahead of us, some in our league, that we’ve beaten. Some multiple times. Others at their place. In other leagues we’ve beaten teams,” Brownell said. “So I think just for those reasons, if you’re truly looking for the 68 best teams, we’re one of the 68 best teams. Finishing third in this league, too, by the way.”