Tigers withstand late Louisville charge to top Cardinals

Chase Hunter reached the 1,000 career point mark.

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Tue Jan 30 23:26:50 GMT-04:00 2024

The Clemson men’s basketball team withstood a late run from the visiting Louisville Cardinals to a 70-64 win on Tuesday.

After falling behind by as much as 24 points, Louisville mounted a 12-2 run and cut the deficit to 14 with under nine minutes left, and their first 3-pointer of the night – in 16 attempts – made it a 10-point game with 6:19 to go.

A series of Louisville trips to the free throw line then made it a six-point game with 3:35 left, and the Cardinals’ second trey of the night cut the deficit to four points with 28.6 seconds to go.

Made free throws from Chauncey Wiggins and Joseph Girard III helped to seal things down the stretch for Clemson, however.

The Tigers improved to 14-6 overall and 4-5 in ACC play while sending the Cardinals to a sixth-straight loss and a 6-15 record (1-9 ACC).

PJ Hall hit the 20-point mark for a 10th game this season, finishing with a team-best 25.

The Cardinals owned a 21-4 advantage on offensive rebounds and a 19-rebound advantage overall.

"We'll take it. I thought our defense was really good for a big part of the game, except for the rebounding," Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said of the win. "I need to watch the film to see. I know our guards did not do a good job in a couple block-outs for sure. They were sending everybody, and it changed the game. We got them to miss their first shot all the time, but we couldn't get the rebounds. So now you're giving them 21 extra shots. Crazy. 21 extra possessions in a game. You give that, and obviously we had a couple of careless turnovers. So, that part is disappointing because we had a big lead.

"I will say this, to get the big lead -- we played really well...Basketball is a crazy sport...Pretty soon you're playing a little casual with a lead and then momentum is working against you and you have to fight your way out of it. But I give our guys credit, we fought our way out of it and got some stops down the stretch. Made some free throws down the stretch, really good from Chauncey and Joe."

It took a little while, but Clemson started to heat up toward the end of the first half.

Coming in as a heavy favorite, the Tigers appeared sluggish off from the tough road loss at Duke on Saturday, but Clemson began to wear down the struggling Cardinals as the period went on.

Girard hit the first 3-pointer of the game with over 10 minutes in, tying the action at 14.

Three Louisville big men picked up two or more fouls by late in the first half, and that started to make a difference as the Cardinals struggled shooting.

The Tigers broke away with an 8-0 run while Louisville went scoreless in the final two minutes, finishing at 50% shooting for the session and making 9-of-15 on two-point attempts to lead 34-22 at the break.

The Cardinals missed all 11 3-point attempts in the first 20 minutes, shooting 24% overall.

Louisville’s offensive woes continued early in the second half, and with a 9-0 run, Clemson stretched its lead to 20 points with 17:31 to go.

Despite drawing within six late, Louisville went without a field goal for over a four-minute stretch in the final five minutes.