No. 6 Louisville runs away from Clemson

Clemson trailed Louisville 11-9 just over six minutes into the game, but a blistering 20-0 run by the Cardinals over the next five and a half minutes turned the Saturday afternoon matchup into a one-sided affair.

Louisville got a season-high 19 points from Darius Perry and a near-high 14 from Samuell Williamson, as the Tigers ability to hold the Cardinals’ usual suspects in check went for nothing in an 80-62 loss.

Clemson settled for threes early in the first half, and made just 2 of its 14 attempts over the first 20 minutes. By then, the game had been decided. Louisville shot 66 percent from the field in the first half and led 47-26 at the break.

Aamir Simms, Tevin Mack, and John Newman combined for just 17 points on 6-of-26 shooting. The Tigers were going to need much more from their top three scorers if they were going to compete in this one.

Clyde Trapp led Clemson with 11 points, and the Tigers got a nice contribution from their trio of freshman guards. Al-Amir Dawes, Chase Hunter, and Alex Hemenway each had 8 points off the bench in efficient efforts. Unfortunately, Clemson didn’t get nearly enough from its core group, and the kind of run the Cardinals put together in the first half was far too much to overcome against a top-10 team on the road.

Clemson will try to bounce back against red-hot Syracuse on Tuesday night.