Virginia proved the 2008-09 adage about "winning on the road" today, beating nationally ranked Clemson in overtime. It was a big day for the Cavaliers program as a whole; they honored Sean Singletary by retiring his jersey and then notched their biggest win of the season, all in a few short hours.Clemson, of course, was coming off a 2-1 stretch that saw them throttle Duke for arguably the biggest win in program history. Clearly, a loss to Virginia hits on the other end of the spectrum.
The Tigers didn't play poorly on the offensive end -- they shot a decent 43% from the floor and had four scorers in double digits. Terrence Oglesby scored 17 but he was only 5-12 from the floor, but the real spotlight was on freshman Cavalier guard Sylven Landensburg who played the entire 45 minutes of the contest.
He scored 23 points with four boards and three assists and was given high praise by coach Dave Leitao, who called him a "big money player."
It couldn't have been a bigger loss for the Tigers -- they were facing the theoretically easiest possible opponent with a chance to tie Duke for second overall in the ACC on the line (not to mention trying to stabilize their national ranking). For the Wahoos, on the other hand, this type of win doesn't give them much in terms of hope for the ACC season, but it did propel them away from Georgia Tech for last place and possibly give them some momentum heading into the stretch run and the ACC tournament; they are, after all, just three games back of Maryland for "fifth" place.
