Louisville snaps 7-game skid with 70-61 triumph over Clemson

At long last, our early early 2022 regional college basketball nightmare is over. The Louisville men’s basketball team has won a game.

The Cardinals won for the first time in seven games and snapped the program’s longest losing streak since 1941 with a 70-61 win over visiting Clemson Saturday afternoon.

Noah Locke came off the bench to lead Louisville with 15 points, including two baskets in the game’s final minutes that essentially put the game on ice. Malik Williams added 12 points and El Ellis 11, while Jae’Lyn Withers pulled down 10 rebounds to go along with seven points.

Clemson was dealt a huge blow in the game’s opening minutes when leading scorer PJ Hall left the game with an apparent ankle injury. Hall, who was coming off a career-high 28-point performance against Florida State on Tuesday, never returned to the floor.

With the victory, Louisville remained perfect (7-0) all-time in home games against Clemson.

I don’t care that Hall basically didn’t play, I don’t care that it was ugly for stretches of time or that the team still made some head-scratching decisions late. Today, I only care that Louisville won. It doesn’t change the last four months or make anyone feel significantly more optimistic about the three weeks ahead, but for right now, it’s enough. I hope the guys celebrate accordingly.

Let us never know another 7-game losing streak in any of our lifetimes.