The Clemson women’s basketball team fell to the seventh ranked Louisville Cardinals Thursday by a score of 75-50 at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson.

The game ultimately came down to the Cardinals’ guard Dana Evans, tying her season and career bests with 27 first-half points.

The Lady Tigers (5-9) came off of a historic win Sunday versus fellow ACC opponent Notre Dame, handing the Fighting Irish their first conference loss at home since 2013. Clemson broke the Fighting Irish’s 58-home game conference win streak with a career best eight 3-pointers from Kendall Spray, enough to tie Clemson legend, Kelly Gramlich’s single game 3-point record and earn ACC Player of the Week honors.

Following Sunday’s dominate win, the Tigers fell behind early against Louisville, struggling to match the Cardinals’ momentum and ultimately finishing the half 1-4 compared to the Cardinals 10-20 from behind the arc.

Louisville (13-1, 2-0 ACC) led 50-22 at the half, with Dana Evans scoring roughly half of the Cardinal’s 50 points.

“I’m disappointed in our start to this game,” Clemson head coach Amanda Butler said. “Louisville’s a great team. You have to shoot three-pointers better than we did against them. That first quarter was the story of the game. We defended the three-point line very poorly and didn’t play the way we needed to.”

Clemson continued to struggle into the second half, ultimately earning their ninth loss of the season by a margin of 25 points and falling to 1-2 in ACC play.

Hannah Hank led the Tigers down low, contributing on both ends of the floor. Hank was Clemson’s leading scorer with 11 points to go along with her seven rebounds, five of which were offensive boards. Chyna Cotton matched her career high with eight points and notched six rebounds and three steals, as well. In addition, Kobi Thornton moved to ninth place in program history in rebounds and third place in program history in blocks. Thornton has racked up 681 boards and 129 blocks thus far in her Clemson tenure. Dana Evans led the Cardinals with 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting.

“The positive is that there’s so much room to grow,” Butler said. “We didn’t play our best game. We’re a team that when we play our best, there’s toughness and there’s effort. To me, those things were very benign today. We’ve got room to be better, and we’ll get results closer to what we desire.”

Clemson looks to bounce back when it travels to Winston Salem, North Carolina on Jan. 9 vs. Wake Forest. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

—photo courtesy of Clemson Athletic Communications