After spending December largely searching for answers, it seemed that the Demon Deacons made a breakthrough with an important win over Virginia Tech in their ACC home opener. Nonetheless, welcoming the Miami Hurricanes to town on a Wednesday evening was a large task, with first-year Head Coach Jai Lucas leading his team to a 12-2 start.
Steve Forbes’ squad fought hard, making for an entertaining, high-octane ACC matchup. Unfortunately, facing the much larger Miami team, the Demon Deacons couldn’t overcome a significant deficit in the rebounding department and dropped a heartbreaker in the Joel Coliseum.
Wake Forest got out to a quick start, forcing early turnovers and hitting shots from deep to jump out to a 12-6 lead, with Nate Calmese banging a 3-pointer into an early Hurricanes timeout. Calmese, coming off a fantastic game four days prior, put up a game-high 11 first-half points. The lead would hover around five points for a large chunk of the first half, before Miami drew even with about eight minutes to go.
The game stayed knotted up from there, with Wake Forest hitting seven of ten first-half 3-point jumpers and the Hurricanes notching 24 points in the paint, leading to a 38-37 lead for the visitors into the break.
The second half was more of the same, with back-and-forth punches and neither team leading by more than three points. Then, at about the five-minute mark, Deacon star guard Juke Harris, who notched a 28-point effort, hit a jumper for a 70-65 lead. Miami took the lead right back, with a 10-0 run over the next three minutes.
A quick bucket, steal and 3-pointer from Harris tangled things up at 75 with just under two minutes to go. Some free throws both ways later, and it was the Demon Deacons’ ball tied at 77 with 45 seconds remaining. However, in a catastrophic turn of events, they turned it over on the inbounds pass, giving Miami a chance to take the lead.
The Demon Deacons forced a mediocre look from star big man Malik Reneau, but their rebounding issues reared their head at the worst time, as Shelton Henderson got the offensive rebound and cleaned it up with a go-ahead putback.
With a two-point deficit and just 26 seconds left in regulation, Wake Forest got the basketball where they wanted it, into the hands of Juke Harris, who was fouled and sent to the line for two shots. Harris, shooting 78% from the stripe on the year, missed both.
Wake Forest fouled, and Hurricanes guard Tre Donaldson sealed the game with two free throws of his own, as the Deacs fell 81-77.
Coach Forbes was clearly frustrated with the late-game mistakes.
“I’m mad at myself,” Forbes said. “I try my best to teach how important those things are late in the game. You work on sureness and toughness with the ball, but it just takes one [mistake], and that’s the game.”
Forbes added that he was disappointed with the lack of physicality down low for the Demon Deacons, who allowed 42 points in the paint.
“[Miami is] a very physical team,” he said. “It’s not just Udeh — Henderson, Washington … they go to the glass. But if they send guys like that and you get the rebound, you should be able to go. We couldn’t get the rebound.”
