There was no slow start for the home team, no second-half hope for the opponent and no question about Wake Forest’s dominant win over Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon.
The Demon Deacons (9-3, 1-0) went wire-to-wire with the Hokies (9-4, 1-1) to take care of an 86-63 victory.
Wake Forest’s offense was as potent and reliable as any other game this season — five players scored in double-digits for the fifth-straight game — but the Demon Deacons’ “gritty” full-court press defense and “grimy” offensive rebounding were what separated the two ACC teams.
“[Virginia Tech is] a type of team that’s a rhythm team on offense,” Head Coach Steve Forbes said. “They’re really good at running their stuff, so why would you let them just walk it up and run it every time? This is the thing about pressure… you don’t have to steal it. You just put the pressure on, and they’ll give it to you at some point. I mean, they just get tired of it.”
Forbes has employed the full-court press this year mostly during the second half of close games, but none have been as badgering or as effective as that of Saturday’s performance.
Wake Forest forced a season-high 19 turnovers, leading to 23 points for the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest wiped the floor with their opponent, wrangling in seven more offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points. The Hokies were held to zero.
Part of this was the management of Virginia Tech’s Lynn Kidd. Coming into the game, the senior center averaged 16.5 ppg and 7.9 rpg off of his 70.9 FG%, but going up against a committee of defenders in Andrew Carr, Efton Reid III and Zach Keller, Kidd was held to 14 points and 5 rebounds while shooting 44% from the field and attempting no free throws.
“A big part of it was being paranoid on defense and seeing the cross screen, pushing him off the line a little bit,” Carr said. “That was a big part of the game plan; he’s a good player. That’s something that we really worked on, being aware of their actions and things like that, because we wanted him to have to catch it up a little farther off the block and force him to make a play.”
Carr (15 pts, 8 reb, 2 stl) was quick to praise Keller (2 pts, 1 reb, 2 stl) for his defensive performance, especially when Reid (13 pts, 8 reb, 2 stl) was in early foul trouble during the first half.
“I don’t know if it shows up a bunch in the stat sheet, but he plays super, super hard, and he’s a really crucial part of this team,” Carr said. “He might go under the radar, but you want to give him his flowers.”
Cameron Hildreth (14 pts, 2 reb) echoed this praise: “He’s one of the reasons we play the way we do.”
The smothering defense down low translated to the perimeter, as Wake Forest was able to hold Virginia Tech to only five three-pointers.
“That was the number one thing: no uncontested threes,” Forbes said. “…They run their actions, and they get you to oversell, and then what happens is they hit the open guy and … get you behind the play. They make the extra pass, and then, all of a sudden, somebody is shooting a wide-open three. Now, they got some, not a lot. So the bigs being in the right position with their head on the ball — never out, never up — made it hard for them to shoot those shots.”
By the Demon Deacons’ standards, Saturday was a modest three-point shooting effort, making 7-of-19 (36.8%). They did take advantage of their repeated trips to the charity stripe, knocking down 19 of their 21 attempts (90.5%).
Junior guard Hunter Sallis led all players with 20 pts and 9 rebounds. Redshirt sophomore guard Kevin “Boopie” Miller was the fifth double-digit Demon Deacon, scoring 14 while adding 2 rebounds and 2 assists.
The Demon Deacons are currently on a seven-game win streak, their longest since 2008-09’s 16-game streak. By going 5-0 in December, Wake Forest secured their first multi-game undefeated month of play in the Steve Forbes era since the COVID-19 season.
Wake Forest will go on the road for the first time since November as they take on Boston College (9-3, 0-1) on Tuesday, Jan. 2. The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. on ACC Network.
