CRAWFORD | An early gift: Louisville women deliver 65-54 win at Clemson in ACC opener | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — They moved Christmas forward, just a little.

The Louisville and Clemson women’s basketball teams agreed to shift their ACC matchup to mid-November so their players could spend December 25 where they belonged — not in a practice gym, but near a tree, a fireplace, and someone who still calls them by their middle names.

That kind of sentiment doesn’t always have a place in the big business of college sports. But Louisville’s Jeff Walz and Clemson’s Shawn Poppie did something risky: they had an idea that made sense.

On Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum, scheduling gave way to good sense. No. 20 Louisville didn’t get sentimental. It got serious.

A 65–54 win. A defense-first, free-throw-closing road victory to open ACC play. And a stocking-stuffer of a stat sheet that suggests this team may have not just the tools to win games, but the IQ to use them.

Forget the mistletoe. Louisville came bearing pressure defense.

After sluggish starts in earlier games, the Cardinals finally jumped out clean. Walz joked beforehand that he might run his team for 45 minutes before tipoff just to convince them it was the second half. At Clemson, he didn’t go that far.

“We dropped them off at Greenville-Spartanburg and they all jogged in before the game,” Walz quipped. “We actually guarded, too. We defended, which is better than we've done all year, especially in that first half. And we did a great job defending the three-point line, which is something they've really been very successful with so far this season.”

Louisville held Clemson scoreless for more than nine minutes spanning the first and second quarters, locked down the arc, and slammed the door with 11-for-11 free-throw shooting after halftime.

The Cards led 30–20 at the break. But the win didn’t come gift-wrapped.

Walz described his offense as hot and cold. His favorite moment? The first possession.

“That was the best offense I think we've had all year,” he said. “We got the ball below the free throw line. Quick ball-reversal. Made the pass to Taj, and she knocks down the three. I mean, it was perfect. And I don't know if I saw that two other times the entire game.”

At times, it was crisp. At times, it looked like a team that just unwrapped its new offense and was still reading the manual.

But there was no panic. The Cardinals made plays when it mattered. They won the closing minutes on feel and free throws, if not fireworks.

If Walz’s coaching career were a Christmas movie, it might be It’s a Wonderful Life, with a technical foul in the second act. But on Sunday, the angels got their wings, or at least their defensive rotations.

Louisville got double-figure scoring from three players — Laura Ziegler (17), Tajianna Roberts (12), and Reyna Scott (10) — and saw Imari Berry put together a perfect third quarter (when she scored all nine of her points), hitting all four of her shots to stretch a six-point edge into double digits.

It was balanced. It was composed. It was routine in the best way possible.

And then came the free throws.

Perfect in the second half. Scott. Roberts. Ziegler. As a team, Louisville went 14-for-15.

There were no ghosts of seasons past. Even when Clemson closed within five midway through the third, Louisville held steady.

Even the most Grinch-like stat — more turnovers (14) than assists (10) — couldn’t spoil the outing. Not when you score 23 points off the other team’s mistakes, and your bench outscores theirs 21–14.

Walz even won a replay review.

“I think I’m 4-for-5 now,” he said.

But this wasn’t about screens — not the video kind, anyway. It was about a team beginning to grow into itself. A group that found gritty stops when threes weren’t falling (Louisville went just 3-for-10), traded turnovers for toughness, and questions for answers.

A team that earned itself a little extra holiday cheer.

Because when the gift is time at home for the holidays, you better make it count.

Louisville did.