Louisville Can't Overcome Clemson, Extends Winless Start to ACC Play
CLEMSON, S.C. - Hitting the road to face the league-leading Clemson Tigers, the Louisville men's basketball program was unable to take down their hosts despite hanging around down the stretch, inevitably falling 83-70 late Wednesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.
The Cardinals (2-15, 0-6 ACC) continue their winless start to conference play, with their overall losing streak now sitting at six games, last winning on Dec. 17 against Florida A&M. Conversely, the Tigers (14-3, 6-0 ACC) earn their best start to ACC play in school history.
Despite shooting 9-of-20 from three-point range, Louisville shot just 40.7 percent from the field, giving them a 38.2 percent clip inside the arc. Meanwhile, Clemson connected on 52.8 percent of their field goals and were 8-of-21 from long range.
Once again, turnovers came back to bite the Cardinals, coughing it up 15 times for 18 Clemson points. They also lost the rebounding battle 33-30.
Four Cardinals finished in double figures, led by Mike James' 17 points. El Ellis notched 12, Jae'Lyn Wither tallied 11 and Sydney Curry collected 10. Clemson also had four double-digit scorers, led by a game-high 28 from Hunter Tyson.
Like they had for the majority of their last two games, Louisville operated with a heightened sense of urgency to start the game. They were active and efficient on both ends of the floor, leading to them winning the first two segments of the contest and take an early 16-7 lead.
But after that, things began to snowball for the Cardinals and the momentum swung in the complete opposite direction. They began turning over the ball like crazy - even doing so on five straight possessions - and threes started falling more consistently for the Tigers. After going up 16-7, Clemson then fired off an 18-2 run, and out-scored Louisville 33-12 for the remainder of the second half to take a 40-28 advantage into halftime.
Louisville shot the ball noticeably better in the second half at 44.4 percent compared to 37.0 percent in the first half, while also shooting 11 more free throw attempts for nine more makes. This allowed them to not only keep pace with Clemson, but get the deficit to six points on a couple occasions within the final three minutes.
However, outside of a 7-0 run in the first few minutes of the half, the Cardinals struggled to string together offensive production with defensive stops. Even after they cut the deficit to six with 1:12 left, Clemson fired off a 7-0 run to end the game and put it to bed.
Next up, Louisville will return home to the KFC Yum! Center and host North Carolina. Tip-off against the Tar Heels is set for Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2:00 p.m. EST.
(Photo of Hercy Miller, Ben Middlebrooks: Ken Ruinard - USA TODAY Sports)
You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:
Facebook - @LouisvilleReport
Twitter - @UofLReport
Instagram - @louisville_report
You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter
