Cavaliers tame Tigers

Mike Scott challenges bulls to ride on his back for eight seconds. Mike Scott can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves. You know how kids go to bed wearing Superman pajamas? Well, Superman goes to bed wearing Mike Scott pajamas.

Those were just a few of the 700-plus comments from Virginia fans that an ESPN blogger recently received after leaving Mike Scott off his list of Wooden Award candidates.

On Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena, Scott, for the umpteenth time this season, showed that the blogger may want to rethink his list.

The fifth-year senior had a game-high 23 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks — and hit 4 of 4 free throws in the final 16 seconds — to lead No. 16 Virginia to a 65-61 victory over Clemson in front of a crowd of 10,919.

“Probably the greatest joy as a coach is when you see a player certainly mature on the floor, which he has — and everyone can see that,” said Virginia coach Tony Bennett, whose team plays at Florida State on Saturday. “His game is good.

“But what I’ve seen from him off the court in terms of leadership and really caring and reaching out for his teammates — not that he didn’t do that earlier — but it’s really become a priority to him. I can’t tell you how enjoyable that is for me to see and I’m just proud of him to see how he’s responded.”

Joe Harris added 19 points for Virginia, which had no other players in double figures. UVa shot 56 percent from the field, its second-best performance of the season.

“It’s all about the guards moving hard and the bigs setting screens,” said Scott, who notched his sixth double-double of the season and the 30th of his career. “If those two are clicking, we’re going to be pretty good on offense.”

After trailing 30-26 at the half, Virginia (18-3, 5-2) hit eight of its first nine shots to start the second half and went on a 19-3 run to take command of the game. The spurt featured three 3-pointers by Harris and was capped by a Scott jumper from the top of the key to put UVa up 51-40 with 9:46 to play.

Bennett said surge was a byproduct of increased defensive intensity.

“They exploited us a little bit [in the first half],” Bennett said. “The challenge at halftime was, ‘This has to change. We have to get after the ball and give much more than you think you’re giving’...

“We really battled [defensively] in the second half and ironically our offense came with it. We got some breakouts and some good things happened.”

Clemson, though, was able to whittle away at Virginia’s lead. After Sammy Zeglinski missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have put UVa up by eight with 1:23 to play, the Tigers’ Devin Booker — who had hit just three 3-pointers all season — drained his third of the game to cut the lead to 61-58.

After a missed 3 by Zeglinski, Clemson’s Andre Young had a chance to tie the game with 18 seconds but his trey was off the mark. Scott corralled the rebound and then hit two free throws after being intentionally fouled to put Virginia up five.

But the Tigers’ Tanner Smith drained a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left that forced Scott to hit two more free throws to preserve the victory.

“I work at that every day, so I definitely felt [confident],” Scott said.

Scott’s teammates have been blown away by what he’s been able to do this season.

“The way he approaches every game — he’s so focused,” said Virginia junior Jontel Evans. “Nobody has knocked him off his game. He comes in well prepared, gets shots up during the week and his focus is just unbelievable this year.”

What’s made Scott so impressive is that he is usually the sole focus of opposing team’s game plans.

Scott remembers the days when he was the guy trying to put the clamps on the best players in the ACC — guys like Tyler Hansbrough, Trevor Booker, Tracy Smith and J.J. Hickson. He says it feels good to have the roles reversed.

“It shows that they have a lot of respect for you,” he said.