Clemson basketball (12-4, 4-1 ACC) suffered its first conference loss by a 74-64 score at the hands of Louisville (11-5, 4-1 ACC) on Tuesday night. Double-digit performances from Chase Hunter, Jaeden Zackery, and Ian Schieffelin weren’t enough to beat a resurgent Cardinals squad.
“I didn’t think we played with the type of force and toughness necessary to come into this environment and be successful,” head coach Brad Brownell said. “I don’t think we played with very good poise tonight.”
The loss ended a three-game winning streak for Clemson, and was their second straight road defeat. 74 points surrendered were the most Clemson has allowed to a conference opponent this season.
Louisville guard J’Vonne Hadley erupted for a season-high 32 points, leading a Cardinals team that had the KFC Yum! Center rocking all night long.
“We didn’t have an answer for Hadley,” Brownell said. “He posted some mismatches. We knew that he would post up. We gave him a lot of space, and he got multiple dribbles and he overpowered us physically.”
The Tigers’ defense held guard Chucky Hepburn, Louisville’s leading scorer, to just 9 points on 1-for-10 shooting, a decline from the 15.5 he’d averaged entering play. Unfortunately, Louisville got going on the inside, drawing 17 fouls on Clemson, and shooting 16-for-20 at the foul line.
“I’m disappointed in the quality of our play,” Brownell said. “That’s on your head coach. Your head coach has got to have your team playing better, and we didn’t play better.”
Clemson’s offense shot just 40% from the field and attempted only five free throws. The number of attempts at the charity stripe marked a season low.
“Finishing around the basket was a problem for us,” said Brownell. “We needed to do a better job of drawing fouls out of the paint.”
A couple of bright spots in the loss were guards Jaeden Zackery and Jake Heidbreder. Zackery, dared to shoot from three-point range several times by Louisville defenders, posted 12 points on 2-for-5 shooting from deep. On the defensive end, he nabbed four steals, and added a pair of offensive rebounds. Despite the shooting struggles for much of the team in the loss, Zackery’s gritty play was a silver lining that will be key for Clemson to reach its full potential down the stretch of this season.
Heidbreder led the Tigers’ bench with 10 points on the night, including a pair of three-pointers himself. Brownell utilized the junior transfer from Air Force more than any other game this season, playing 29 minutes in the contest.
The Tigers look to bounce back with a home matchup against the Florida State Seminoles (10-4, 1-2 ACC) on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Littlejohn Coliseum. ACC Network will televise the game. Saturday’s matchup will be the second of a road trip for the Seminoles, who travel to Miami on Wednesday, December 8th. Clemson swept the season series with their southern rival in 2023, posting identical 11-point wins in both Tallahassee and Clemson.
