Wake Forest coasts to 82-70 victory over Davidson in uptown Charlotte

Wake Forest outmuscled and outshot Davidson on Friday in an 82-70 victory against the Wildcats in a college basketball game at Spectrum Center.

The Deacons, getting double-figure scoring from five players, outrebounded the Wildcats 43-30 and made 45.5 percent of their 3-point shots. Wake improved to 3-2. The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Davidson (2-3).

“It was one of those nights where we were a step slow to everything,” said Davidson coach Bob McKillop. “And they made some shots that just break your heart. Some of those put a dagger into your heart, and we had a hard time responding to it.”

Guard Brandon Childress had 18 points and seven assists for the Deacons, with Torry Johnson and Olivier Sarr each adding 15. Isaiah Mucius had a team-high 10 rebounds to go with 11 points and Andrien White, a transfer from the Charlotte 49ers, added 11.

Davidson got 20 points from guard Kellan Grady and 17 from guard Jon Axel Gudmundsson.

The Deacons accomplished what they wanted defensively, holding Davidson to 7 of 25 shooting from the 3-point line..

“Speed them up,” said Childress. “We wanted to run them off the (3-point) line. Kellan Grady is a heck of a player and he made some shots. But we wanted to force their other players to put the ball in the basket.”

The Deacons led for much of the first half but couldn’t put more than seven points between them and the Wildcats. Wake Forest did most of its damage on the boards, where the Deacons outrebounded Davidson 25-16. Mucius had eight rebounds of his own in the first half, and the Deacons converted seven of their eight rebounds into 10 second-chance points.

Still, Davidson stayed close. The Wildcats cut the Deacons’ lead to two points three times, including 33-29 on a three-point play by guard Carter Collins with 1 minute, 43 seconds left in the half. But a jumper by Mucius with 37 seconds left gave Wake a 33-29 halftime lead.

But the Deacons made 10 of their first 11 shots in the second half and led by as many as 23. Davidson couldn’t recover.

“When you don’t score offensively, sometimes you take that miss to the defensive end and you’re not as quick to the ball, not as alert as you need to be,” said McKillop. “That cascaded down defensively for us.”

Wake Forest faces Charleston on Thursday in the Wooden Classic in Anaheim, Calif. Davidson heads to the Orlando Invitational -- where the Wildcats will play Marquette on Thursday -- minus the confidence it had gained during its brief winning streak.

“Confidence is ever so fragile,” McKillop said. “I told team after the game, I don’t think they could have been better prepared or worked harder to prepare than they did. Then we got knocked to the mat. Confidence gets a little edgy from that.”

And one

McKillop said in the preseason he would stress developing his bench, and he has done that so far. Ten Wildcats played in the first half against Wake Forest.

Personal foul

Davidson forward Luka Brajkovic was effective early in victories last week against UNC Wilmington and Nevada. But he picked up two early fouls against the Deacons and scored just one point and had one rebound in the first half.

ICYMI

Wake Forest was without guard Chaundee Brown (ankle), the team’s leading rebounder (9.8) and second-leading scorer (15.8), as well as reserve guard Sharone Wright Jr. (illness).

Making sense of the numbers

28: 3-point percentage by Davidson, which was making 41 percent from long range entering the game.

4.7: Brajkovic’s scoring average in Davidson’s three losses. He averaged 20 in the Wildcats’ two victories.

15: Second-half points by Wake Forest forward Olivier Sarr, 15 more than he had in the first half.

This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 9:30 PM.