“They gave way more effort than we did.” Those were the words of sophomore guard Juke Harris following a crushing defeat at the hands of the Oklahoma Sooners in the ACC-SEC Challenge on Tuesday night. 

The Demon Deacons have particularly excelled in the early season in rebounding, moving the basketball and winning the turnover battle. This game featured a complete collapse in all three of those categories. 

From the get-go, both teams came out very fast-paced and sloppy. The opening minutes of the game featured plenty of live-ball turnovers and out-of-control shots, with neither team finding consistent success offensively. Nonetheless, the Deacs were able to get out to a slight lead with some threes from Juke Harris and forward Omaha Biliew. 

Unfortunately, Biliew, who was arguably the best player on the court in the opening stretch, collected his second foul near the 13-minute mark of the half, limiting his playing time for the remainder of the half. Wake came to miss his play, as the length and physicality of the Sooners gave them a distinct advantage in an already defensively-focused ballgame. 

With Biliew limited, and in the midst of a middling performance from the rest of the Deacon big men, the Sooners handily controlled the boards, especially on their offensive end. While the Deacs’ possessions were generally one-and-done, Oklahoma was able to get second and third chances at each possession as Wake struggled to get defensive rebounds. 

Thanks to a late run heavily aided by those second chances, the Sooners held a 37-35 lead at the half, and a 23-11 advantage in the rebounding column. 

Oklahoma got a bit more separation in the opening minutes of the second half, but a small run from the Deacs’ Harris and Mekhi Mason culminated in a Nate Calmese bucket that tied the game at 47 with about 15 minutes remaining. 

That’s when things started to get out of hand. Over the final 15 minutes, Wake would make just five field goals, shooting a paltry 25%. The Sooners, on the other hand, would go on to shoot 63% the rest of the way. While the Deacs struggled to make anything, it felt like everything was falling for the visitors in crimson. The game quickly unraveled.

Forward Tae Davis, who had hurt the Deacs in the past while at Notre Dame, scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half. The turnovers that Wake was able to deal with in the first half became a much larger issue in the second, with shots not falling. 

When the dust settled, Wake Forest took an 86-68 defeat on their home court, the first regular-season non-conference home loss in the Steve Forbes era. After the game, Forbes did not sugarcoat things: 

“They just ran their stuff, and we didn’t give them a lot of resistance … it ballooned from there,” he said.

A loss of any kind in such a crucial non-conference matchup would have been a significant hit to the Deacs’ chances to make the NCAA Tournament, but a blowout loss like that is going to be extremely difficult to overcome. Their tournament hopes are not dead, but make no mistake: the road to March Madness just got a whole lot harder.