Perrantes goes for 25 as Virginia guts out a 77-73 win at Clemson

CLEMSON, SC -- Six days after going for 24 points in a home win over Wake Forest, London Perrantes scored a season-high 25 on Saturday afternoon, including a 3-pointer with 2:05 left as No. 19 UVa pulled away for a 77-73 win at Clemson.

The Cavaliers (13-3, 3-2 ACC) shot 58 percent from the field in the win, as well as hitting 10 of 18 3-point attempts (55.6 percent). And it's a good thing too because they not only allowed the Tigers to score 42 points in the paint and turned the ball over 16 times, a season high.

But luckily for the Wahoos, Perrantes had another big day from the floor (8-for-15 shooting, including a 4-for-8 day from deep) and Marial Shayok also had another 17-point effort.

In addition, Isaiah Wilkins scored eight and tied a career-high with 13 rebounds as UVa controlled the glass 30 to 25.

After Clemson's Avry Holmes scored the game's first six points, UVa's Devon Hall picked up his second foul with 16:21 left in the half, followed shortly thereafter by Jack Salt picking up his with 15:10 left until intermission. Worse, it came on a play where UVa committed its first turnover at a time when the Hoos were shooting 33.3 percent from the field.

The Tigers (11-6, 1-4) got a big boost early from big man Elijah Thomas, who scored a pair of buckets in a row to give Clemson a 10-5 lead. But Darius Thompson (who finished with seven points) and Shayok, and later first-year guard Kyle Guy (who had six), kept UVa afloat. They scored a combined 16 points from the under-16 to the under-8, pulling Virginia within 24-23 with 6:28 left in the first half.

Perrantes hit an and-1 with 5:36 left to give UVa its first lead of the day and after Marcquise Reed hit a pair of free throws for the Tigers (their last lead), the Wahoos went on a 9-3 run spurred by a Perrantes jumper, another and-1, and a Salt dunk. By the time Perrantes hit a pair of free throws with 1:17 left, Virginia had a four-point lead.

But the final minute was pretty much a disaster. Following a turnover, All-ACC wing Jaron Blossomgame got loose for a dunk in transition with 37 seconds left and, after UVa called a timeout to set up an inbounds play near midcourt with 2.5 seconds left, Thompson turned it over and Holmes scored as the buzzer sounded, leaving it knotted up 36-36 at the half.

UVa came out and despite turning the ball over too much, the Hoos got stops and built a lead. Wilkins' putback broke the tie at 18:18 and then a trio of 3s from Perrantes, Thompson, and Shayok gave them a 47-41 advantage (despite 11 turnovers) with 15:43 left, forcing a Clemson timeout.

When Virginia wasn't turning the ball over or getting dinged for fouls in the post, the Cavaliers were making everything count from the floor. They started the second half going 8-for-12 from the field, including hitting five in a row as the team went into the under-12 with UVa up 58-51.

After Wilkins scored inside with 10:14 left, Clemson got a 3-pointer from Gabe Devoe and then a bucket inside from Blossomgame (who finished with a team-high 22) to cut the lead to 60-56 as Wilkins appeared to take an elbow to the back of the head and UVa called timeout with 9:01 to play.

Perrantes came out with a cold-blooded, step-back 3-pointer to help UVa kill Clemson's mini-run but the Tigers answered with a Devoe steal (on a poor pass from Shayok for Virginia's 14th turnover of the day) and dunk. After Shayok made a jumper, Shelton Mitchell got an and-1 to go down as the Hoos led by five with 7:21 left.

From there, Blossomgame and Perrantes dueled. The former scored inside to bring the Tigers within three and then the latter hit another step-back 3 to put UVa up 70-64 as the Hoos called timeout with 4:06 left. But after Donte Grantham hit a 3-pointer and Salt fouled out with 2:37 left, Blossomgame's and-1 in the lane tied things up with 2:18 to play.

And that when Perrantes hit the biggest shot of the day, another 3-pointer some 13 seconds later that put UVa up 73-70. Following a timeout, Clemson got a look from 3 for Devoe but it hit the side iron and Perrantes fought hard to save the rebound and keep it on a pass back to Thompson. The Tigers got another look from deep from Grantham on the next possession but it drew nothing but iron, too.

With his team in desperate need for one more bucket Perrantes, isolated at the top and with Clemson playing Wilkins hard enough to deny the screen, drove hard into the lane and got the lay-in to go with 43 seconds left as the Wahoos led 75-70. Fouled by Perrantes on the other end on a questionable call, Holmes could only make one of two, giving the Cavaliers the four-point lead and the ball with 32 seconds left following the called timeout.

And though he was saddled with foul trouble for most of the day, Hall came through in the clutch. He was fouled with 18. 7 seconds left and despite playing sparingly compared to his usual, he went to the line and made the front and back ends of a 1-and-1. He finished with nine points in the win.

It was Virginia's sixth-straight victory over the Tigers and its fourth in five true road games so far this season.