Wake Forest can’t finish comeback, lose 79-71 to Miami in opening ACC Tournament game
Say this much about Wake Forest — the Demon Deacons never stopped fighting.
Down 12 to Miami in the first game of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday in Charlotte, Wake could have mailed in the last five minutes of its last game. Instead the team fought back, playing its best defense all day and cutting Miami’s lead to four.
But then, the Deacs ran out of time. They still drove to the basketball and drew fouls but did not make the free throws they needed to complete their comeback. The final score: Miami 79, Wake 71.
The reason Wake was in such dire straights at all? You could blame any number of things — turnovers and a lack of interior scoring, primarily — but also, the team went on a 1-for-7 shooting stretch in the final two minutes.
And so ends not only Wake Forest’s underwhelming season, but quite possibly Danny Manning’s tenure as coach.
Three who mattered
Jaylen Hoard: The freshman has NBA-level length at 6-foot-8, and while he still needs to develop before leaving for the pros, he used his size well to rack up 16 points and seven rebounds.
DJ Vasiljevic: His four 3-pointers and game-high 21 points often came late in the shot clock, making Miami’s offense look better than it is — and his alley-oop layup was one of the flashier plays in an otherwise dreary game.
Chris Lykes: Miami’s leading scorer — he averages 16.2 points per game — got into foul trouble midway through the second half and only finished with 13, although his return late staved off a Wake comeback bid.
Observations
▪ Wake Forest entered the game averaging 13.4 turnovers per game, one of the worst marks in the ACC. The Deacons came close to that number in just the first half against Miami with nine giveaways, and ended with 15.
▪ Miami scored 19 points just off those turnovers, compared to only 12 points for Wake on the Canes’ 12 giveaways — that was the difference in an otherwise close game.
▪ Despite leading by 12 with 5:32 left in the game, Miami let the Deacons bring it back to a four-point game.
Worth mentioning
▪ Ron Wellman, Wake Forest’s outgoing athletic director, and John Currie, his replacement, were in the Spectrum Center stands pre-game chatting with one another. Currie will take over once Wellman’s retirement becomes official in May.
▪ There was a weirdness in the air during Wake’s game, given the news of the morning: a federal bribery scandal implicating several high-profile colleges, celebrities, and CEOs, which claims students were admitted to universities with faulty test scores and by paying off school officials. Wake was one of the schools named in the investigation, and the school placed volleyball coach Bill Ferguson on administrative leave.
▪ Wake Forest won its last ACC Tournament championship in 1996, when Tim Duncan starred for the Demon Deacons. Miami has only one championship, which came in 2013 over North Carolina.
They said it
“I feel I’ll be back ... That’s my hope.” – Manning, asked if he anticipates returning next season to coach one of the ACC’s younger rosters.
“It’s frustrating because we fight hard out there on the court, but can’t seem to put like 40 minutes together.” – Hoard.
“Yeah, definitely. Loyola did the same thing to us last year and went on a run. We’re going to try and do that.” – Vasiljevic, on if lower-seeded teams are under-appreciated.
This story was originally published March 12, 2019 at 2:21 PM.