Postgame Notes

Jan. 8, 2002

* Clemson’s 68-52 victory over fifth ranked (USA Today) Virginia was the largest margin of victory by the Tigers against a Top five team since January 2, 1980 when Clemson defeated North Carolina 93-76 at Littlejohn Coliseum.

* Tonight’s win was Clemson’s 50th in history over a top 25 team at home, its 46th in Littlejohn Coliseum. Clemson’s first win over a top 25 team in Littlejohn was against Virginia on January 28, 1971, 45-44. Virginia was 15th in the AP poll heading into that game.

* This was Clemson’s first win over a top 20 Virginia team since January 19, 1980. Clemson defeated a 12th ranked (AP) Virginia team led by freshman Ralph Sampson, 88-68 at Littlejohn Coliseum. This was just the sixth time Clemson has beaten a top 25 Virginia team. It was the highest ranked Virginia team Clemson has beaten in history. The previous high was a 12th ranked Virginia team on January 19, 1980.

* This was the fourth top 25 win for Larry Shyatt as Clemson head coach, the sixth of his coaching career (two as head coach at Wyoming). Five of his six career top 25 wins have been over top 10 teams. That includes the win over #1 North Carolina last year.

* Virginia shot just 2-25 on three-point attempts in the game and the 8 percent accuracy was the best three-point percentage defense of the Larry Shyatt era. Virginia entered the game leading the ACC in three-point percentage accuracy with a .388 mark. Clemson was last in the league entering the game with a .292 figure. Tonight’s .421 figure for the Tigers was just the fifth time this year Clemson has shot better than 40 percent on three-point shots. The best effort of the season was a 9-15 shooting figure against Charleston Southern. Clemson is now 4-1 when shooting at least 40 percent on threes. The only loss is at Duke when Clemson was 6-12.

* Jamar McKnight scored a career high 25 points in the contest and now has 47 points in Clemson’s two ACC wins. He had 22 against Georgia Tech last Saturday.

* Edward Scott’s 17 points were his high total since he had 21 against Elon on December 15th. Since missing his first four shots against Georgia Tech, giving him a streak of 18 straight misses, Scott is 10-18 from the field, including 5-8 on three-point goals. Three of the five have been from 25 feet out.

* This was just the fifth game all year Clemson has made more three-point goals than the opposition. Clemson is now 5-0 in those games.

* Entering tonight’s game, Clemson had been outscored by 108 points on three-point goals. Tonight, Clemson was +18.

* This is the first time since the Feb. 14-17, 1999 that Clemson has won consecutive conference games. Clemson defeated Florida State on the 14th and Virginia on the 17th that year.

* This is the first time Clemson has won consecutive conference games with one of the wins a victory on the road since 1997-98. That year Clemson finished the ACC regular season schedule with a win at NC State and a home victory over Georgia Tech.

* Clemson shot 53.3 percent from the field in the second half of tonight’s game. Clemson has now shot at least 50 percent in the second half of four of the last five games. Clemson shot 60 percent from the field in the second half against Tech last Saturday.

* Clemson has won two consecutive conference games even though its bench has scored just four points in each game.