CLEMSON, S.C. -- Down by 14 points with five minutes remaining in Sunday afternoon's game at Clemson, the situation looked dire for Virginia. But the Cavaliers improbably rallied to score the last 15 points of the game and shock No. 19 Clemson 64-63 in front of a stunned crowd of 8,728 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
"That was a tremendous, gutty effort by our guys," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said of the 15-0 run. "I don't know that I remember anything like that."
With 15 seconds left, Jason Cain tipped in a missed shot by Adrian Joseph to give Virginia (13-6, 5-2 ACC) the lead that it would not relinquish.
J.R. Reynolds scored 18 points to lead Virginia. The senior shooting guard has now led the Cavaliers in scoring in each of the past three games.
"This was very big for us to get this win, especially after what they did to us last year," Reynolds said, referring to a 90-64 loss at Clemson last February.
Joseph and Sean Singletary each scored 11 points while Mamadi Diane added 10.
"Once Adrian got going, I knew that we had a lot of firepower," Singletary said. "They had to play us honest. I was able to get in the paint sometimes and kick it out to Adrian. J.R. was also able to come off screens and knock it down."
The win was Virginia's first on the road against a ranked opponent since 2003. The Cavaliers have now won two straight conference road games. Last season, Virginia won only one conference game away from Charlottesville.
"Last year, not winning on the road was one of our main problems," Joseph said. "It's tough to beat us at home so we're trying to make it tough to beat us on the road as well."
The first half featured 11 lead changes as the two squads battled back and forth. A bucket by Cliff Hammonds gave Clemson a 34-30 lead at halftime.
The Tigers (18-4, 4-4 ACC) quickly seized the momentum early in the second half. Clemson took its largest lead of the game, 61-45, when Hammonds swished a three-pointer with 8:47 remaining.
"We just had no life defensively," Leitao said. "We were allowing post-ups, not playing proper pick-and-roll defense and we were allowing drives."
But after Trevor Booker hit two free throws for the Tigers with 5:05 remaining, Clemson's offense went into a shell.
In the closing minutes, Joseph scored eight points on two three-pointers and one shorter jumper.
"Adrian came in and did a great job," Reynolds said. "He hit some big shots."
With Virginia trailing 63-62 and 31 seconds left on the clock, Clemson's K.C. Rivers stepped out of bounds, turning the ball over to the Cavaliers. Virginia moved the ball down the court where Diane missed a three. But Singletary pulled down the offensive rebound, keeping the possession alive. Joseph missed a driving lay-up but Cain finished the job with a clutch tip-in.
"He was just there," Leitao said. "We had a couple of shots. The defense was a little bit displaced. They weren't in natural rebounding position, so it put [Cain] out in front of the basket."
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