Clemson’s men’s basketball team walked into the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday still in the thick of the ACC title race and in contention for an NCAA Tournament berth.

Now a regular-season conference title looks like a longshot. And those hopes of going dancing? They’re on life support.

PJ Hall and Brevin Galloway did what they could, pouring in 26 and 16 points, respectively. But it wasn’t enough to keep Clemson from what’s now its worst loss of the season. The Tigers dropped an 83-73 decision at Louisville, which shot 51% from the field to avenge a double-digit loss to Clemson (19-8, 11-5 ACC) last month for just its fourth win of the season.

“They’re playing good basketball right now,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “When you watch them on film here in the last two to three weeks, they’re just playing much better.”

Not only did Clemson fail to take advantage of Pitt’s loss at Virginia Tech earlier in the day – a win would’ve moved the Tigers into a three-way tie for second place in the ACC standings – but the Tigers also suffered their third Quad 4 loss of the season at a time when they could least afford it. Some bracket projections heading into the weekend had Clemson among the last four teams into the NCAA Tournament field while ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Tigers among his first teams out.

Clemson still has some resume-building opportunities remaining with back-to-back trips to NC State and Virginia coming later this month. Next up for the Tigers is a date with Syracuse on Wednesday back at Littlejohn Coliseum.

And after Saturday’s result, which officially gave the Tigers more Quad 4 blemishes than Quad 1 wins on the season, the margin for error is all but gone the rest of the way.

Louisville (4-23, 2-14), whose only other wins are over Western Kentucky, Florida A&M and Georgia Tech, led by as many as 14 in the second half thanks in large part to a prolific offensive performance from senior guard El Ellis, who poured in 28 points on 9 of 15 shooting. JJ Traynor added 16 points for the Cardinals, who scored 21 of their 26 buckets from inside the 3-point arc and also made 26 of their 28 free throws.

“Our fouling was problematic,” Brownell said. “So we gave them some free throws. And then they just got by us a little bit. They spread us and got by us a little.”

Meanwhile, consistent offense was hard to come by for Clemson outside of Hall and Galloway. Hall made 12 of the 21 shots he took, finishing two points off his career-high, while Galloway went 5 of 10 shooting. Chase Hunter (15) and Hunter Tyson (12) also scored in double figures, but finding their collective stroke proved difficult on a day when the Tigers shot 43%.

Tyson, who’s looked like an ACC Player of the Year candidate for much of the season, shot 5 of 14 and just 2 of 9 from 3-point range, a microcosm of the Tigers’ struggle from deep. Clemson shot just 16.7% (4 of 24) from beyond the arc.

Clemson trailed 39-26 at the break, though it could’ve been worse considering the Cardinals shot 50% from the floor in the first 20 minutes – nine percentage points higher than their season average. Ellis (13) and Traynor (10) combined for 23 first-half points and made four of Louisville’s first eight 3s.

But the Tigers forced nine first-half turnovers and scored 10 points off them to stay close. Back-to-back steals helped ignite a quick 6-0 run that gave Clemson a 32-28 lead with 5:02 left in the half. But the Tigers missed seven of their last nine shots of the half, getting just 11 first-half points outside of Hall and Galloway.

The shooting touch continued to elude Clemson for much of the second half until the Tigers made a late surge to get within four a couple of times in the final minutes. Clemson had a chance to cut the deficit to one possession when Hall lined up a 3 from the wing with less than 2 minutes left, but it came up short.

“I thought our team panicked just a little bit,” Brownell said. “We seem to have panicked just a little bit on offense in some of these games, especially on the road when things aren’t quite going as well as they sound for us.

“I’ve got to coach that better. I’ve got do a better job with my guys. I’m a little disappointed. We’re an older team, and we have to execute in some things better.”

Clemson never got any closer as Louisville made four of its final five shots to close out a result that may haunt the Tigers all the way to Selection Sunday.