CHARLOTTE — Friday night was a strange night for the Clemson basketball team.

Not only did the Tigers nearly comeback and win after being down 15 points with 3:28 to play, but they were also locked out of their locker room for four minutes during halftime of their 76-73 loss to No. 13 Louisville in the ACC Tournament Semifinals.

The Clemson Insider asked several ACC officials for any information on what happened with the locker room incident.

The ACC did not give an official response as to what happened. However, sources inside the ACC told TCI the league is not sure how the door ended up being locked. There is security outside every locker room.

The ACC did not have an issues with any of the games prior to Friday’s Clemson-Louisville game.

“No one knows how the door became locked,” a source said. “No one goes in there beyond the team once they arrive.”

TCI also spoke with the security guard placed outside the Tigers’ locker room. She told TCI she was there all day and she was not aware anything had happened.

For some reason, the Tigers were locked out of their locker room for the first four minutes of halftime. Knowing his team had just 10 minutes before it had to return to the court to warm up, Brownell had to deliver his halftime speech and adjustments to his players in a hallway outside their dressing room.

Brownell was asked after the game if he received any clarity from the ACC on what happened at halftime and why they were locked out of their own locker room. He was also asked if that has ever happened before.

“No, not at this level. It’s disappointing, obviously,” he said.

–photo by  Bob Donnan / Imagn Images