Virginia Basketball vs. Clemson Game Preview, Score Prediction

Matt Newton | Mar 1, 2025

Aaron Snyder

See our gameday live blog for Virginia vs. Clemson with score updates and live analysis here: Virginia vs. Clemson Live Updates | NCAA Men's Basketball

Coming off of a big win at Wake Forest, Virginia will look to build some momentum as the calendar turns to March and the Cavaliers welcome No. 13 Clemson to Charlottesville for Senior Day on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena.

Read on for a full preview of Virginia vs. Clemson, including game details and notes, an opponent scouting report, what to watch for, and a score prediction for Saturday's matchup.

Virginia vs. Clemson Game Details

Who: Virginia Cavaliers (14-14, 7-10 ACC) vs. Clemson Tigers (23-5, 15-2 ACC)

When: Saturday, March 1st at 12pm ET

Where: John Paul Jones Arena (14,623) in Charlottesville, VA

How to watch: ESPN2

Commentators: Jay Alter (Play-by-Play), Randolph Childress (Analyst)

How to listen: SiriusXM 119 or 193, SXM App 955 | Virginia Sports Radio Network | Clemson Athletic Network

All-time series: Virginia leads 83-53

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Clemson 66-65 on February 3rd, 2024 at Clemson.

Virginia vs. Clemson Game Notes

• Virginia leads Clemson 83-53 in the all-time series that dates back to 1936.
• UVA has a four-game winning streak in the series against Clemson and has won 15 of the last 16 meetings with the Tigers and 17 of the last 20.
• The Cavaliers have a 47-17 advantage against the Tigers in games played in Charlottesville and an 8-2 edge at John Paul Jones Arena.
• Virginia will face a ranked opponent for the sixth time this season and is 0-5 against ranked teams so far in 2024-2025.
• Clemson is currently tied for second place in the ACC standings with a 15-2 conference record, while Virginia is tied for ninth at 7-10 in ACC play.

Scouting Report: Clemson

2023-2024: 24-12, 11-9 ACC (5th)
2024-2025: 23-5, 15-2 ACC (2nd)

Clemson is in its 15th season under Brad Brownell, who has coached the Tigers to four NCAA Tournaments and is well on his way to bringing them to a fifth this season. Last year, Clemson went 24-12 overall, earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and toppled No. 3 seed Baylor and No. 2 seed Arizona on the way to the program's second-ever appearance in the Elite Eight, where the Tigers came up just shy of their first trip to the Final Four in an 89-82 loss to No. 4 seed Alabama.

Clemson lost its two leading scorers from that team in PJ Hall and Joe Girard, but brought back a number of key contributors. With just a couple of weeks left until the postseason begins, the Tigers seem to be the midst of one of their best seasons in program history. Clemson opened the season by winning nine of its first ten games, including an impressive victory over then-No. 2 Kentucky in the ACC/SEC Challenge. The Tigers suffered back-to-back overtime losses to Memphis and South Carolina, but have gone 14-2 since then and come into this matchup with Virginia on a six-game winning streak, a streak that began with a 77-71 win over Duke, making Clemson the only team in the ACC to have beaten the Blue Devils this season.

With a 15-2 record in ACC play, Clemson already has its most conference wins in a season in program history, bettering the 14-6 record the Tigers boasted in 2022-2023. Clemson is blowing teams out, with 13 of its 15 ACC wins coming by double-digits and three of them coming by 20 or more points. The Tigers went 4-0 against the four North Carolina schools for the first time ever and became just the eighth team in history to beat Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky in the same season.

Clemson has four players averaging double-figures in scoring, led by 6'4" graduate guard Chase Hunter, who averages 16.7 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.3 steals per game and shoots a blistering 42.8% from beyond the arc on nearly six attempts per game. Hunter, who began his college career back in the 2019-2020 season, has scored in double figures in all but four of Clemson's games this season, but two of those games have come in the last two weeks. He has also reached double figures only once in six career games against Virginia.

Joining Hunter in the back court is another experienced guard in Boston College transfer Jaeden Zackery. A 6'1" graduate guard playing his fifth season of college basketball, Zackery is averaging 10.9 points, 3.4 assists, and 2.0 steals per game, ranking third in the ACC in the steals category. Zackery is also shooting 35.2% from three-point range on 3.3 attempts per game.

Headlining the Clemson front court is Russian center Viktor Lakhin and forward Ian Schieffelin. Both players are a load to handle, as Schieffelin is 6'8" and weighs in at 240 pounds, while Lakhin is listed at 6'11", 245 pounds. Starting with Schieffelin, who has only gotten better and better in his four years at Clemson, he is averaging career-highs in points (12.9 ppg), rebounds (9.4 rpg), and assists (3.0 apg) and is shooting 37.8% from three on 2.6 attempts per game. Lakhin, a Cincinnati transfer, is averaging 11.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game and is the ACC's leader in blocks, averaging 1.7 rejections per game. He too is a threat from beyond the arc at 38.6% from three.

6'10" junior forward Chauncey Wiggins (9.0 ppg) started 23 games so far this season, but Clemson has recently been opting for 6'3"junior guard Dillon Hunter (5.8 ppg) to round out the starting five. Wiggins is the better three-point shooter at 38.9% from beyond the arc and obviously allows the Tigers to play a bigger lineup, but Hunter gives Clemson more flexibility in its back court and another facilitating option. Also averaging double-digit minutes off the bench are 6'5" guard and former Air Force transfer Jake Heidbreder, who is the team's leading three-point shooter at 43.3%, and 6'3" guard Del Jones, a true freshman from Landover, Maryland, who scored 13 points to help Clemson win at Virginia Tech back on January 25th.

What to Watch For in Virginia vs. Clemson

Make it rain at JPJ
Saturday's game will feature two of the top three-point shooting teams in the ACC, as Virginia is ranked fourth in the league at 37.5% from three and Clemson is ranked second at 38.9% from three (only Duke is better at shooting the three). The Tigers are better at defending the three-point line, though, holding opponents to 32.6% from three (fifth in the ACC), while the Cavaliers are 13th in that category. UVA is 7-2 when hitting at least 10 threes. If the Cavaliers can get knock down at least 10 threes, as they did in their most impressive wins of the season at Wake Forest, at Pittsburgh, and at Virginia Tech, they can give themselves a chance to topple the No. 13 team in the nation.

Home Court Advantage?
John Paul Jones Arena was one of the most difficult places to win for visiting teams in Tony Bennett's 15 years at Virginia and the Cavaliers came into this season with an impressive .816 winning percentage (246-56) at JPJ. That hasn't quite held for the Cavaliers this year, as UVA has a pedestrian 9-6 home record in 2024-2025. The Clemson Tigers, meanwhile, have the been the definition of road warriors this season, going 9-3 in games away from Clemson and 7-3 in true road games. Clemson's only road loss in ACC play this season was at Louisville and the Tigers have already guaranteed a winning record in road ACC games for the first time since 1986-1987, when Horace Grant was leading Clemson on the floor. With it being Senior Day and a noon Saturday tipoff, maybe the UVA faithful can turn John Paul Jones Arena back into the menacing home court advantage it used to be and give the Cavaliers the crucial edge they need to win this game.

High-stakes for ACC standings and ACC Tournament seeding
Virginia's big win at Wake Forest was significant for the ACC standings. While the Cavaliers aren't in their usual spot of contending for another ACC regular season title, they did jump up several places in the standings with their win over the Demon Deacons and are now in line for the No. 9 seed and the final first round bye in the ACC Tournament if it started today. But Virginia will need to finish strong in order to hang onto that coveted No. 9 seed. Clemson, meanwhile is tied for second place in the ACC standings with Louisville, but the Cardinals own the head-to-head tiebreaker. More importantly, both of those teams sit only one game back from Duke, who still has rivalry games against Wake Forest and North Carolina remaining. A share of the ACC regular season title is not out of the question for Clemson.

Virginia vs. Clemson Prediction

I picked against Virginia at Wake Forest and the Cavaliers proved me wrong. I'm going to make the Hoos prove me wrong again. Clemson is really good this year and I don't see the Tigers looking past the Cavaliers on the road.

Score prediction: Clemson 74, Virginia 67

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