By Derek DeBurger
After digging themselves into an insurmountable hole, Louisville falls short in yet another comeback against the Clemson Tigers.
Already coming into the game as big underdogs, the Cards were without Hercy Miller and Ty-Laur Johnson due to an illness and an injury in pre-game warmups, respectively. This left Skyy Clark as the only point guard available for the game.
Despite the lack of depth, the Tigers’ inability to score and Louisville’s domination of the offensive glass meant the game started competitively. Louisville had 11 offensive rebounds in the first half alone, giving them plenty of opportunity to gather second-chance points.
The problem with the Cards, and what was ultimately a ticking time bomb, was the lack of ball movement, poor three-point shooting, and foul trouble. Louisville did not have a single assist or made a three-pointer in the first half. The Cards were somehow able to weather their self-inflicted storm but then came front-court foul trouble—two on Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and three on Emmanuel Okorafor and Kaleb Glenn in the first half—that saw Clemson’s lead climb from one to 12 in just under five minutes to close out the half.
Clemson led at halftime 34-22.
Clemson continued to draw fouls inside on their way to extending the lead to 24 throughout the second. To make matters worse, Glenn fouled out quickly in the second, Okorafor picked up a fourth foul, and Clark also suffered a hip injury during Clemson’s run. Clark out left the Cards with zero point guards to rely on.
Down 24 on the road with only six available scholarship players, it felt like all hope was lost.
Head coach Kenny Payne was forced to change up his game plan to accommodate for the losses, and in doing so created better ball movement on offense alongside great pressure and urgency on defense. With guard/forward Mike James slotted to be the primary ball handler and Tre White as the top scoring option, Louisville was able to slowly chip away at the lead.
All of a sudden, Louisville found themselves down seven with White at the free-throw line.
Louisville later cut the lead down to four, and a near-steal by forward Curtis Williams with just 26 seconds left would’ve given the Cards the chance to cut the lead to one possession. Williams, however, threw the ball out of bounds, and Clemson was able to put the game away at the line.
Louisville would lose 70-64.
Louisville outrebounded Clemson by 20 and White had career-highs of 29 points and 14 rebounds with a game-high two assists.
The problem is that Louisville was not able to keep out of foul trouble to outrebound by an even larger margin, and the offense only ran through White after it was forced to.
Why can’t the bigs attack the glass like that every game?
Why can’t the offense rely on ball movement over isolation every game?
These are simple things that gave the Cards a chance against the Tigers that coach Payne has failed to effectively preach until over halfway through the 21st game of the season.
The comebacks are nice, but the deficits are what kills you.
Louisville falls to 6-15 on the season, 1-9 in the ACC and 10-43 under Kenny Payne.
