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No. 19 Virginia wins sixth straight over Clemson

Published January 26, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Updated January 27, 2009 at 2:54 p.m.

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Virginia coach Debbie Ryan is tired of the road. She's glad she got a good memory Monday night to bring back to campus.

Lyndra Littles scored 22 points and Monica Wright 19 to help the 19th-ranked Cavaliers win their sixth in a row over Clemson with a 75-67 victory on Monday night.

It was the third time in four games Virginia (16-4, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) has had to pack up and travel. The team has been on a stretch that began 10 days ago with a loss to powerhouse North Carolina and continued with a defeat to Florida State, Virginia's only home game since Jan. 11.

"It's been very rough," Ryan said.

Now, Virginia gets to play at home the next two weeks, although the schedule includes games against top 10 opponents Maryland and Duke.

"We'll be able to stay home for about 10 days and get some players rested," Ryan said. "It'll make a big difference."

It almost cost the Cavaliers in this one, as their 15-point lead shrunk to 57-52 with 9 minutes to go.

But Littles and Wright, who both came in averaging 20 points a game, responded with big plays to keep Virginia out front.

"We're still learning and we're still responding," Littles said. "That's all you can ask out of any team — learn, respond to what your mistakes were and get back out there and do it again."

That's what Clemson's Kirstyn Wright did to the Cavaliers. The sophomore hadn't hit a 3-pointer in the Lady Tigers' (12-9, 2-5) previous six games. But she made made three in a row to cut a 53-38 lead down to five points.

"She can shoot the ball — she does that in practice," Clemson coach Cristy McKinney said. "Now, we have to see her do that again."

The Cavaliers turned up their defensive intensity and offensive aggressiveness to build back the margin.

Littles had a pair of foul shots as did Wright, the ACC's top scorer at more than 22 points a game.

Littles added two more buckets, and Wright a putback, to extend the lead to 67-58. Clemson got no closer than six points the rest of the way.

Littles said when she and her teammates dialed up the defense, things flowed back in Virginia's favor.

"Our main thing was go to and get that stop," said Littles, who scored 15 of her points in the second half. "Coach Ryan kept saying focus and get the stop."

Wright finished with 19 points. Aisha Mohammed had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

Lele Hardy led Clemson with 17 points.

Virginia came in off its second loss in the past three games and hoped to get going early. And with Wright controlling the outside and Mohammed unstoppable beneath the boards, that's exactly what the Cavaliers did.

After Whitney Hood's basket put Clemson up 10-6 with 14:41 to go, Virginia went on a 24-6 run to take control.

Mohammed hit an inside bucket to start things off. Wright hit a 3-pointer moments later to put Virginia ahead 13-10. She added six more points in the charge, including the a basket with 4:40 remaining that gave the Cavaliers a 30-16 lead.

Wright had 13 points in the opening period. She was also active on defense with a three of Virginia's four first-half steals.

The game was the first for both teams since the death of former North Carolina State coach Kay Yow, and tributes were everywhere at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Clemson gave out pink cancer awareness ribbons to fans, along with a pink placard with the words, "In Loving Memory of Kay Yow."

The Cavaliers and Lady Tigers each wore T-shirts during warmups with "Yow Forever," and the pink ribbon symbol on the back. Clemson coach Cristy McKinney, a member of Yow's first N.C. State team, wore her alma mater's distinctive color. Her Virginia counterpart, Debbie Ryan, had a pink sweater.

There was a halftime feature on Yow's life and legacy shown on the Littlejohn Coliseum replay board and the officials used pink whistles in memory.

McKinney remembered how as a high school senior she had signed to play for Yow at Elon in 1975. But Yow took the North Carolina State job before the next season after enrollment had closed — seemingly too late for McKinney to join the Wolfpack.

Yow, however, found a way to bring a few players with her. They included McKinney, then Cristy Earnhardt, who eventually scored 1,359 points in her North Carolina State career under Yow and was part of the coach's first ACC regular-season title team.

"When you see everything that's been done on TV and you hear what everybody's saying, men's coaches, women's coaches, ADs," McKinney said, "there's no doubt that was a remarkable lady."

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