Louisville plays with energy against Clemson

Chris Mack says his team played with "tremendous energy" in sixth straight victory

Louisville wanted to play with more energy after an uninspired victory over Georgia Tech Wednesday. Louisville coach Chris Mack thought his team played with tremendous energy throughout its 80-62 victory over Clemson Jan. 25 at the KFC Yum! Center.

Darius Perry scored a team-high 19 points and Samuell Williamson added 14 points in Louisville’s sixth straight win. The Cardinals went on a 20-0 run midway through the first half, holding Clemson scoreless for more than six minutes in a suffocating defensive effort.

“We were really talking about playing with a ton more energy the last few days,” Mack said. “I really think the story of the game was our ability to play with that much energy for 40 minutes.”

Clemson shot 34.4 percent from the field, taking 38 shots from behind the arc as Louisville built a double-digit advantage early in the first half. Louisville made an emphasis to not allow any slip ball screens, something Clemson executes well.

Mack said Clemson didn’t have a slip screen against Louisville.

“I think when you do that you really show that you’re paying attention to detail,” Mack said. “You combine that with our energy and the way we shared the ball, and I thought that was a really good game for our team.”

Clemson closed its deficit to 13 points late in the second half during a scoring drought that lasted more than four-and-a-half minutes, but Louisville’s defense closed out the game. Clemson went 1 of 9 from the field in the final few minutes.

After several inconsistent performances, Louisville wanted to play a full 40 minutes.

“I don’t think the challenge was to put away the opponent by 20 or a lot of points, I think more of the challenge was to have a lot of energy,” Perry said. “I think we have been lacking energy.”