CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No. 13-ranked Louisville and No. 10 Clemson found satisfaction in their results while realizing they were challenged in their first games of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Expect another tussle when the teams meet in a tournament semifinal Friday night.
Clemson (27-5), the third seed, will need to regroup in several ways after having all it could handle Thursday night in beating sixth-seeded SMU 57-54.
“You have to grind and get through it,” Tigers guard Jaeden Zackery said. “Our first game being like that and showing that we’re able to power through and finish out the game with a victory, that’s strong for us moving on the rest of the season.”
Louisville (26-6), the second seed, has lost just once in 2025. The Cardinals came from 15 points down in the second half to beat No. 7 seed Stanford 75-73 in the quarterfinals Thursday on Chucky Hepburn’s basket at the buzzer.
“I’ve been saying all year long how lucky I am to have such a veteran-laden team, so much leadership within our team,” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said. “I didn’t have to say much in the huddle.”
The Cardinals put together a sterling finishing stretch. They said they can’t rely on that type of late-game efficiency to bail them out.
“It shouldn’t take for us to be down 15 to come out and play like that,” Terrence Edwards Jr. said. “That’s how we play from the jump.”
It was more than two months ago — Jan. 7 — when Louisville claimed a 74-64 home victory against Clemson. That came with J’Vonne Hadley’s 32 points – or 20 points above his season scoring average.
“I don’t know that you can just focus on one player,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “That’s why Louisville is really good. They’ve got several guys that can have big nights.”
Clemson received 21 points from Chase Hunter in the SMU game. That was the highest scoring output for the All-ACC player in his last nine games.
“We’ve gone to him all year,” teammate Ian Schieffelin said. “He has delivered all year. And when he has the ball, we have full trust in him. We know he’s going to make the right play.”
Yet the Tigers needed their defense to rise, holding SMU without a field goal for the first six-plus minutes.
Clemson has issues on the injury front after guard Dillon Hunter departed in the first half.
“I don’t think it’s good,” Brownell said. “He probably broke his hand.” Hunter will get X-rays on Friday.
That figures to mean more playing time for Jake Heidbreder and Del Jones.
“It will be an adjustment going forward,” Brownell said.
Louisville was short-handed in its game Thursday because Reyne Smith was out with an ankle sprain. He’s third on the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game.
“It’s literally day-to-day,” Kelsey said. “Obviously, he wants to be out there so bad. He’s as tough of a kid as I’ve ever coached. The type of ankle sprain that he has, kind of the high ankle sprain type, they’re no fun. He’s getting treatment, basically, around the clock, and then each day we see how he progresses.”
Top-ranked Duke and North Carolina will meet in the first ACC semifinal on Friday night.
–Bob Sutton, Field Level Media
