By Will Vandervort (Contact / Staff Bio)

Originally published March 22, 2008, 12:17 a.m. EST. Updated March 22, 2008, 02:45 a.m. EST

TAMPA, Fla. — For the first 15 minutes of Friday’s first-round game of the Midwest Regional, the 22nd-ranked Clemson Tigers could do little wrong.

They made jump shots, acrobatic layups, forced turnovers and got three 3-pointers from an unlikely source. Everything was in place for the Tigers first win in the NCAA Tournament since 1997. Then 12th-seeded Villanova realized this was the NCAA Tournament.

Behind the play of sharpshooter Scottie Reynolds, the Wildcats rallied from an early 18-point deficit to beat fifth-seeded Clemson, 75-69. Reynolds scored a game-high 21 points as the Wildcats advance to play 13th-seeded Siena on Sunday.

“He’s good. There is no question about it,” Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said about Reynolds. “We walked him to the line a few times on some you know, some traps out front that maybe we’d normally get away with.

“Obviously, they feature him. They run ball screens for him. They’re looking to get him free at all times. I mean he is the focal point of their offense. He did an incredible job.”

Villanova’s win was the fourth straight for the lower seeded team in Tampa’s St. Pete Times Forum, a first in the NCAA Tournament since seeding began in 1979.

Earlier in the day Western Kentucky, San Diego and Siena, all lower seeds, beat Drake, UConn and Vanderbilt. It was also the Wildcats 13th win in the tournament as an underdog – a tournament record.

“I thought if anything, what happened earlier in the day got our guys ready to go,” Purnell said. “I mean, I think anybody that watched our games, knew our guys were ready to go.”

The Tigers (24-10) looked ready as they jumped out to a 10-point lead, 12-2, on a Demontez Stitt three-pointer just four minutes and 32 seconds in. Clemson led by as many as 18 points in the opening 20 minutes thanks in large part to Stitt’s nine first-half points.

The freshman finished the game with 14 points and was 4-of-4 from behind the three-point line, including one that gave Clemson a 36-18 lead with 5:01 to play.

Clemson got 16 first-half points off its pressure defense too in the opening half. The Wildcats turned the ball over 10 times, including a stretch in which they turned the ball over four times in six possessions.

“We definitely letdown mentally,” Clemson forward Sam Perry said. “We had them down 18 and we just didn’t keep the gas on the pedal.”

Reynolds played a big role in that. After getting his team within 12, 39-27, at the break, he followed a Dante Cunningham layup with one of his four 3-pointers, and just like that Villanova (21-12) pulled within seven points just one-minute into the second half.

“I think any time a team finishes with a flurry going into the half and starts with a flurry coming out, they’ve got a great chance to win the game,” Purnell said. “That certainly proved to be the case here tonight.”

Clemson traded a couple of quick baskets to hold a steady seven-point lead, but Reynolds hit another three to make the score 43-39, and later followed two Fisher free throws with a driving layup with 15:28 to play that made it a one-point game at 44-43.

“You could see it in his eyes tonight,” Clemson guard Cliff Hammonds said about guarding Reynolds. “He had that determination in his eyes and that want to. I tried to stay in front of him the best that I could and he came off a lot of ball screens. His teammates helped him a lot. We had to switch up on him a lot and he took advantage of every opportunity that he got.”

Stitt made another three which gave the Tigers a little more breathing room at 48-43, but they could never get their inside-outside game going.

It also did not help that Clemson’s two post players, Trevor Booker and James Mays, sat most of the second half on the bench in foul trouble. Both eventually fouled out as Booker went out with 8:41 to go and Mays left with 1:37 to play.

The two combined for just 10 points and 7 rebounds.

“What happens is your post guys get frustrated, they don’t hold their seals, and your perimeter guys really don’t make a conscious effort of finding them in there on the reversal,” Purnell said. “That’s what happens. I thought Trevor got frustrated, and I think it cost him some in terms of fouling on the other end and that kind of thing.

“They (Villanova) do a great job. They front the post and they play with two hands high to keep the pass from going in there.”

It also didn’t help that Clemson made just seven shots in the second half and were 9-of-33 from three-point range. The Tigers were just 2-for-16 in the second half.

“It’s very important that you don’t fall in love with the threes, which we did,” Purnell said.

Fittingly enough, it was Reynolds that gave the Wildcats their first lead of the night, 50-49, when he kissed a 3-pointer off the glass while being fouled by Hammonds in the process.

“When he saw a big (guy) on him, he would try to go to the rack and when he saw a smaller player on him he felt he could pull up on it and that’s what he tried to do,” Hammonds said.

From there, the Tigers went cold. After David Potter made a jump shot that gave Clemson a brief 51-50 lead with 11:25 to go, it went the next six minutes and 22 seconds without a field goal.

Villanova extended the lead to three points, 55-52, moments later when Corey Fisher nailed a 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down with 9:55 to play. Eight Terrence Oglesby free throws allowed Clemson to stay close.

Thanks to Villanova coach Jay Wright being called for a technical foul, Clemson cut the lead to two points at 64-62 on two Oglesby free throws and then tied things up when Stitt made two foul shots with 1:55 to play.

However, the Wildcats scored nine of the next 12 points as Cunningham, Reggie Redding, and Fisher all made their free throws to pull away. Villanova made 24 of their 29 free throws.

“Tonight, you saw a team that was a little more determined than Clemson, and normally you can’t say that,” Hammonds said. “We are out there scraping and clawing with almost everybody and most of the time we are the more determined team. At the beginning of the game, we showed that. We had that determination in our eye, but midway, I guess we relaxed and thought we had the game wrapped up.

“Villanova definitely came out in the second half with that determination that they needed to win the game.”