Initially, I was going to title this some version of “Clemson Men’s Basketball remains perfect in ACC”, but after watching the second half against Louisville I thought better of using that adjective.
Clemson defeated Louisville 83-70 in a foul-plagued game in Littlejohn Coliseum to move to 14-3 on the season and 6-0 in the ACC.
Hunter Tyson recorded his fifth consecutive double-double, recording 28 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Tigers.
Once again, four Tiger starters hit double figures and the fifth finished with 8.
Chase Hunter hit for 13, P.J. Hall and Brevin Galloway totaled 10 apiece and Ian Schieffelin chipped in 8.
After trailing by 9 early, Clemson took control of the game and was up by 12 at the half and at one point the lead jumped to 17.
Louisville wouldn’t go away easily though and on the strength of 45% shooting from three-point range and almost two dozen free throw attempts, cut the lead to 6 in the second half.
After not scoring or netting a rebound in the first half, P.J. Hall came alive in the waning minutes to help Clemson stave off the Cardinals’ rally, hitting all four of his free throws.
With Hall totaling only 17 minutes on the night, Clemson got impressive minutes and production from Ben Middlebrooks, who scored 6 and grabbed 5 rebounds in 23 minutes of action.
R.J. Godfrey also chipped in 6 off the bench for the Tigers.
Clemson shot 52.8% from the field, 38.1% from three-point range and once again was on point at the line, making 82.6% of their 23 foul shots.
Clemson Men’s Basketball won by double digits despite not playing their best brand of basketball
This was not the Tigers best performance as they played fast and loose with the ball at times, mimicking Louisville’s street ball offense, which is not Clemson’s game.
Still, winning by 13 on an “off night” says something about this Clemson team, something you weren’t able to say about Clemson basketball teams for a long time: They find a way.
The path gets a bit tougher as Duke comes to town for a Saturday afternoon matchup that’s scheduled for 5 p.m. on the ACC Network.
Brad Brownell is in a good spot. His team is undefeated in the conference, but there’s plenty of coaching that can be done from this win.