Clemson outlasts Virginia to advance in the ACC women’s basketball tournament
Shawn Poppie treated the game like the season was on the line, and his team responded. Clemson women’s basketball defeated Virginia 63-50 Thursday in the second round of the ACC tournament, a matchup between two teams trending toward the right side of the NCAA tournament bubble that Poppie approached as a win-and-in scenario. “We kind of took this as our season’s on the line,” Poppie said.
“We felt like a win today was going to get us in the NCAA tournament no matter what happens the rest of the way out.” Clemson (21-10) is into the ACC tournament quarterfinals for the first time since 2021, and almost certainly found its way into its first NCAA tournament since 2019 in the process. On Thursday, Clemson and Virginia both struggled from the floor for large swaths of play, shooting under 35% in the first half and failing to string consistent offensive possessions together. The score slowly trickled up and momentum swung back and forth the entire game, with 11 lead changes and neither side going up more than 7 points.
Some of the early offensive woes came down to an uncharacteristically off first half for Tigers’ leading scorer Mia Moore. The senior guard fell into early foul trouble and scored just 2 points in four minutes, but exploded for 17 in the second half and 10 in the fourth quarter to help wake up her team’s offense. “I just knew how much my team needed me,” Moore said. “I got two fouls early and just knew that I had to be there for my team at the end.” The Tigers find their way against the Cavs In a game where one solid stretch would likely be enough to win, Clemson found the spurt.
The Tigers went on a 13-2 run from the end of the third quarter through the early stages of the fourth, triggered by back-to-back Hannah Kohn and Taylor Johnson-Matthews 3-pointers. Moore’s hot finish created separation, all while the Tigers slowly squeezed the life out of Virginia’s (19-11) offense at the other end. The Cavaliers ended the game at just 32.8 percent shooting, and shot 4-of-19 from beyond the arc. In a game with everything at stake, Poppie’s Tigers squad battled through a first-half slog without its best offensive option, stemmed the tide enough to stay in the game and overpowered an opponent in a similar situation at both ends of the floor in crunch time.
“I thought that was a gritty, hard-fought, tough win,” Poppie said. “In my opinion that’s an NCAA Tournament game with two NCAA Tournament teams, and it was a little bit of everybody. That’s kind of how we’ve been built all year.” Up next: Clemson vs. Duke Clemson will take on No. 1 seed Duke in Friday’s quarterfinals at 11 a.m. on ESPN2, a rematch of its most impressive win off the season to date.
The Tigers upset Duke 53-51 at Littlejohn Coliseum less than two weeks ago, snapping the Blue Devils’ 17-game-winning streak at the time. “They’re really, really good in transition,” Poppie said. “I thought at our place we did a really good job of slowing it down and making it a half-court game. Defensively they’re obviously long. We’ve got our hands full again tomorrow with their length, and they’re one of the best defensive teams in the country.” Duke won the tournament last year, and is attempting to go back-to-back for the first time since 2010-2011.
