Gillen, who may have owed his return this year to three victories over the Tigers last year, saw his Cavaliers capture their first ACC win of the 2004-05 season when they held off the Tigers 81-79 at University Hall. Virginia (10-6, 1-5 ACC) snapped a four-game losing streak and moved into a tie for 10th place in the ACC with the Tigers (9-8, 1-5).

On a night when they shot 57.1 percent from the field and committed a season-low six turnovers, the Cavaliers couldn't rest easy until Sharrod Ford's 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer.

Clemson already had made a season-high 13 3-point field goals, but the Tigers' 30th 3-point attempt of the game was only the fourth career 3-point attempt for Ford, who is 0-for-4.

"I was nervous it was going to go in," Gillen said. "Murphy's Law."

In other words, if something can go wrong, it's going to go wrong. On the other hand, Clemson now has lost 48 of its last 52 ACC road games, although the Tigers had won at Florida State only 10 days earlier.

Devin Smith led four Virginia scorers in double figures with 22 points. Fellow senior Elton Brown added 16 points, including three field goals in the final 3:26.

Clemson senior Olu Babalola shared high-scoring honors with 22 points, including a 3-pointer that brought Clemson within two points with 17.1 seconds left.

UVa had gone ahead 81-77 when J.R. Reynolds made both ends of a one-and-one with 33.3 seconds, but Reynolds missed the front end of a one-and-one with 13.3 seconds to play.

"We had a play set up if they made the free throw," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "[Ford] opted for the 3, but obviously we didn't need it. If it goes in, we all go home happy. Since it didn't, you'd rather he would have gone inside.

"We got a wide-open shot. You couldn't have drawn it up any better."

Ford later said he had lost track of the score and felt that the Tigers needed a 3-pointer, or else he wouldn't have taken a step back to make sure he was behind the line.

There were nine lead changes before UVa grabbed the advantage on a Gary Forbes basket with 9:20 remaining before halftime. UVa led by as much as 35-29 before going to the locker room with a 41-35 spread, the third time it had led at the half in an ACC game.

After outrebounding the Tigers 18-12 in the first half, Virginia gave up two offensive rebounds on Clemson's first possession of the second half and the Tigers quickly climbed into the game at 45-45. Virginia followed that with a 9-1 run, capped by a Smith 3-pointer, but the Tigers wouldn't go away.

Virginia's six turnovers were its lowest total in an ACC game during the seven-year Gillen era and helped offset Clemson's whopping 23-11 second-half differential on the boards.

"That was our biggest win of the year, getting No.10 and winning a league game," said Gillen, who is 4-0 against Clemson and 4-16 against all other ACC opponents during the past two seasons. "We needed something good to happen.

"You can't win a couple of games in a row until you win one in a row. Obviously, we've got a very tough game Thursday at Virginia Tech. We'll enjoy this game a little bit and worry about the Hokies in about eight minutes."