CLEMSON – The effort put into Saturday’s battle against No. 7 Duke led to a sleepwalk early on for Clemson against Louisville, but the Tigers caught fire at the end of the first half and held off a late Cardinals’ run in a 70-64 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum Tuesday night.

Clemson’s strength was its shortcoming in the first half as the Cardinals dominated on the offensive glass. The Tigers had a goose egg while Louisville had 11, a massive shock coming into the game.

Still, Clemson remained poised before going on an 8-0 flurry before halftime. The Tigers made five baskets over their last six shots in taking a 34-22 lead into the break.

Louisville (6-15, 1-9 ACC) never led again again as Brad Brownell’s team walked away with the victory.

The Tigers (14-6, 4-5 ACC) added a 9-0 run to open the second half and it was quickly 43-23 as the Cardinals’ hopes appeared buried. That wasn’t the case as things got nervous down the stretch, as the lead was cut to four in the final minute due to multiple Clemson misses on the front end of one-and-one’s at the free throw line.

Joseph Girard III had a slow start before finishing with 13 points and moving up to third all-time behind the arc in ACC history. Girard has 353 three-pointers in his career, only behind JJ Redick and Curtis Staples.

Offense came in abundance for Clemson, led early by Chase Hunter’s 16-point night, going 5-for-5 from the floor until his first miss came over 32 minutes into the game.

PJ Hall was the closer and then some with a team-high 25 points, including 7 of 8 from the free throw line. That was a trend for the night as the Tigers went 17-18 from the charity stripe until crucial misses late that opened the door, finishing 21-25.

Tre White carried Louisville’s offense with a game-high 29 points on 11of 19 shooting, but the Cardinals shot 34 percent as a whole on the night. The dominance on the offense glass wasn’t enough, only amounting in eight second chance points.

The Tigers have a four-day break before a key matchup in Littlejohn Saturday. Clemson takes on Virginia at 2 p.m., and will be televised on the ACC Network with a chance to get back to .500 in the conference.

–Photo courtesy of Clemson Athletics Communications