Strong second half by Jestin Porter powers Clemson past No. 24 Louisville
Powered by Jestin Porter's 16 points, Clemson came away with an 80-75 win over visiting Louisville on Saturday afternoon in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
The win ended Clemson's losing streak at four and gave the Tigers (21-8, 11-5 ACC) their second victory against a ranked opponent this season.
Porter scored all of his points after halftime and made four three-pointers.
Ace Buckner collected a season-high eight rebounds off the Tigers bench. RJ Godfrey scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Tigers.
For the Cardinals (20-9, 9-7 ACC), Ryan Conwell extended his double-digit scoring streak to 22 as he scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Louisville's leading scorer on the season, Mikel Brown Jr., came off the bench for the second time this season due to a back injury. He scored a season-low five points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field and a season-worst 0-for-6 from three-point range.
After a driving layup in the second half, Brown grimaced coming up the court. He left the game at the 16:12 mark and returned to action at the 13:12 mark. However, he played only five more minutes after that and exited the game for good at the 8:40 mark.
Adrian Wooley started the game for Brown and scored 17 points for Louisville and made three three-pointers, tying a season-high in conference play.
To begin the second half, Clemson went on a 10-4 run to build their lead to nine points.
Louisville had held Clemson scoreless for two and a half minutes, but a Porter layup followed by an immediate steal led to a three-pointer that ended the drought and increased Clemson's lead to 11 points as the Littlejohn Coliseum rose to its feet.
Coming into the game, Louisville was second in the ACC in free-throw percentage at 77.8 percent. They shot a season-low 58 percent from the foul line Saturday.
The Cardinals were fifth in three-point percentage at 36.1 percent and first in three pointers made per game going into Saturday's matchup, when they went 10-for-36 from three-point range and missed 24 out of their final 28 three-point attempts after starting the game 4-for-6 from three.
In the final minute of the game, Louisville went on a quick 16-4 run to get the Clemson lead from a game-high 15 points all the way down to four. Wooley scored 11 of his 17 points during that time frame.
However, Buckner made four free throws in the final 15 seconds to keep Louisville at bay long enough for the clock to hit zero.