Wake Forest Men’s Basketball dealt with a familiar feeling Saturday night.
After coming into the game with a 3-10 record away from home, the Demon Deacons had a chance at what would be a high-quality win, facing the Virginia Tech Hokies at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, VA. That chance was squandered during the second half, as they were downed, 87-76.
It all looked good from the start for the Demon Deacons. The game opened with a hot shooting outside, with 3-pointers from the entire starting lineup: Hunter Sallis (11pts, 5reb), Andrew Carr (7pts, 3reb), Kevin “Boopie” Miller (21pts, 6ast), Efton Reid (13pts, 6-9 FG) and Cameron Hildreth (12pts, 4ast). All hit their first shots of the night from downtown — and the same went for reserve players too, like Parker Friedrichsen, who made his first two attempts from three.
Meanwhile, the Hokies executed half-court offenses effectively to keep themselves at a manageable deficit. Designed plays for the likes of guards Hunter Cattoor (26pts, 5-10 3PT) and Sean Pedulla (15pts, 6ast) saw them take (and make) open shots from the perimeter, all while pounding the ball inside to center Lynn Kidd (21pts, 9reb).
The Demon Deacons, however, did not stop their barrage from deep. Friedrichsen and Miller hit even more shots from downtown to put them 9-10 from three and up as much as 15 points.
“The game plan worked in the first half,” Wake Forest Head Coach Steve Forbes said.
An 8-0 run from Cattoor and Pedulla shaved the deficit back down to seven points, but Miller hit a series of mid-range floaters and a pair of foul shots to put Wake Forest up nine heading into halftime.
After the break, the Demon Deacons continued to shoot from deep — but this time to no avail.
Missed threes from Miller, Carr and Hildreth allowed the Hokies to respond on the other end and pull within four. An 8-0 run fueled by a pair of Cattoor 3-pointers pulled the Hokies back into the lead — with Wake Forest unable to respond on the offensive end.
“Hunter Cattoor played outstanding,” Forbes said. “He’s a really good player and killed us there in the second half.”
The Hokies continued to ride through Cattoor and Pedulla, with them combining to go 5-7 from three-point land in the first ten minutes of the second half. That led to an eight point Hokie lead, firing up the home crowd at Cassell Coliseum.
“We didn’t execute on either side of the ball in the second half,” said Forbes.
After a bucket by Padulla, he and Reid went chest-to-chest, resulting in a technical foul called on the latter. Cattoor took and made both free throws to put the Hokies up double-digits. After timely shooting from Cattoor, a 6-2 run by the Hokies’ Kidd put them up by as much as 16 points.
“If we’re scoring the ball, we’re pretty good on both sides of the ball,” Forbes said. “When we don’t score the ball, then that carries over to defense and we don’t do well on the other end.”
Wake Forest didn’t give up, going on a 7-0 run of their own to bring the deficit down to nine points. Despite this, the Hokies closed the game out, with the final score, 87-76.
Afterwards, Forbes spoke of what went wrong in the second half — a common theme behind a good amount of road appearances.
“Coming out of the locker room, I’ve tried a lot of things, and it’s just not working,” Forbes said. “I’ve never coached a team that has played like this in the second half, and ultimately that’s on me.”
The Demon Deacons return back to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday, March 9, to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Tip-off is set for 9 p.m. on ACC Network.
