CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson University men’s basketball earned a bounce back win with an 80-75 win over #24 Louisville on Saturday afternoon in Littlejohn Coliseum.
The Tigers (21-8, 11-5) were led by Jestin Porter (Houston, Texas/Cypress Ridge/Middle Tennessee State) who finished with a team-high 16 points on six made field goals, including four threes.
RJ Godfrey (Suwanee, Ga./North Gwinnett/Georgia) totaled 13 points and seven rebounds, while Ace Buckner (Dallas, Texas/La Lumiere School (Ind.) led the Tigers in rebounding with a career-best eight boards. Buckner also scored 11 of Clemson’s 27 bench points.
In addition to Buckner off the bench, Chase Thompson (Glenwood, Minn./Alexandria Area) added five points in eight minutes. The balanced scoring attack rounded out the Tiger offense with Carter Welling (Draper, Utah/Corner Canyon/Utah Valley), Dillon Hunter (Atlanta, Ga./Westlake) and Butta Johnson (Huntsville, Ala./Grissom/UAB) scoring eight points each and Jake Wahlin (Provo, Utah/Timpview/Utah) totaling seven.
Clemson built a seven-point lead in the opening stanza and would lead by three at halftime 38-35.
In the second period, Clemson would push its lead to nine early on at 48-39 and would keep Louisville at bay for most the half. The Tigers’ sequence of a Porter layup and Davidson steal and dish for a Porter three pushed the Tiger lead to double-digits.
The Tigers would engineer a 13-4 run in total and lead 68-53 with 4:53 remaining in regulation. Clemson would hold the Cardinals furious rally off toward the end of the game and win 80-75.
Clemson committed just nine turnovers, while forcing 11 from Louisville. The Tiger bench scored 27 points and Clemson finished 49.0 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from three. It made 24 free throws in the contest.
Clemson returns to the court on Tuesday, March 3 when it travels to Chapel Hill and take on North Carolina. The game tips at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
Notes: Clemson improves to 21-8 on the season and 11-5 in the ACC … the Tigers improved to 7-11 all-time against Louisville, including 7-1 in games played at home … Clemson improved to 95-38 since the 2022-23 season and 54-22 in league play over that time period – the best marks in a four-year period in school history … Head Coach Brad Brownell won his 313th game at Clemson and 480th overall in his career … Ace Buckner set a career-high with eight rebounds.
