Cavs tame Tigers

For many programs, a looming contest against a nationally-ranked Maryland team could cause a team to overlook a Clemson squad who is just 2-9 in the ACC. Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle made sure her players did not do just that as the Hoos cruised to a 68-36 win over the Tigers Sunday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.

The Cavaliers (18-6, 6-6 ACC), who beat Clemson 54-47 back on Jan. 8, notched their second ACC win in a row after taking care of North Carolina State last Sunday, and showed no rust from the week off.

"It was one of our better games obviously," Boyle said. "From start to finish there were a lot of good things on both ends of the floor for us."

Virginia asserted itself early by playing suffocating defense which then led to easy buckets on the offensive end of the floor. Clemson (6-17, 2-10) recorded 10 turnovers in the first 10 minutes of play allowing the Cavaliers to jump out to an early 22-7 lead midway through the half.

The lead would grow to 37-17 at halftime, as UVa took an 8-0 run into the locker room and forced 18 Clemson turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

Sixteen of those turnovers came off of Cavalier steals as they matched a team record, forcing 26 takeaways for the game.

"We’ve been talking about getting back to our defense and rebounding," Boyle said. "Our defense gave us some easy baskets tonight, while when we were down there we didn’t get any easy baskets. We made some adjustments over the past couple of days and it was very effective tonight."

The Cavs picked up where they left off in the first half, as they opened the second half on a 16-4 run, ballooning the lead to 53-21.

More pressure defense coming from the Cavalier zone allowed the Hoos to collect easy baskets in transition which made up for Virginia’s lack of a 3-point presence (2 for 17 for the game).

"We were just aggressive and we said that from the start," Virginia point guard Ariana Moorer said.

"We said that from the start that we would be aggressive for 40 minutes and we did just that this afternoon."

Moorer led Virginia with six thefts, as every Cavalier player recorded a steal for the game. She also put in 13 points and dished out seven assists.

Fellow senior Chelsea Shine scored a game-high 20 points on 10-of-13 shooting, with 12 of those points coming in the first half. Shine also pulled down seven boards and racked up four steals.

"Tonight I was just in the flow," Shine said. "The team overall did a great job of finding me and a great job of contributing overall."

Clemson was led by Nikki Dixon, who scored 14 points, while Quinyotta Pettaway added 10 points for the Tigers.

Virginia shot 43.9 percent for the game compared to just 37.2 for Clemson.

The Hoos also out-rebounded the Tigers 42-29.

Virginia looks for its third straight conference win as the team hosts the No. 8 Terrapins on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

"We aren’t going to change anything," Moorer said. "We are going to continue to work on our defense and we are really just worried about us
basically."