Virginia’s 19-4 run in the second half leads the Hoos past the Deacs.
In what is becoming an all too familiar theme, Wake Forest performed admirably against a very good opponent for approximately 32 minutes before folding down the stretch. Wake Forest was tied with Virginia at 46 with 10 minutes to go, but UVA finished the game on a 33-16 run to win 79-62.
John Collins didn’t put up fantastic traditional box score stats in the first half, but did an outstanding job of drawing fouls on Virginia and staying out of foul trouble. Wake looked patient on offense and got a nice distribution of scoring. Mitchell Wilbekin, Austin Arians, Keyshawn Woods, Bryant Crawford, and Dinos Mitoglou all knocked down triples for Wake in the first place.
Multiple times Virginia slightly pulled away, but Wake Forest was usually resilient. Virginia was up 28-24, but then Bryant Crawford knocked down a triple and got fouled. He missed the subsequent free throw, but Keyshawn Woods followed it up with a put back.
Wake Forest crawled back several times in the second half. The first time it was when Virginia took an early 35-31 lead in the second half, and the second time was when Virginia was up 46-42. Virginia then went on a 19-4 run after Wake tied the game at 46 when John Collins had an excellent shot underneath.
Virginia went on a very quick surge with about 10 minutes to go, as Devon Hall drained back-to-back three’s, and Jack Salt had a put back and one. All of that in just over a minute’s time sealed the deal for Virginia. Wake was in some zone during this time, which I don’t have a problem with, but Wake absolutely has to do a better job of contesting jump shooters. Too often in this game they got lost defensively, and that led to too many jumpers.
The Hoos won every facet of this game. They shot 49% from the field, while Wake shot just 40%. This was compounded by UVA making 9 of 19 three’s, while Wake made just 6 of 21. Virginia, who has struggled with rebounding lately, outrebounded Wake by 5, and also had 3 fewer turnovers. They also attempted more free throws and made a higher percentage. If Wake was going to win, they had to make three pointers and win the rebounding battle. It looked good early on, but it wasn’t sustainable.
John Collins led Wake Forest with 16 points, while Bryant Crawford added 15. Keyshawn Woods and Dinos Mitoglou were also in double-digits, as they finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
In a vacuum it’s very difficult to get upset about losing to Ken Pom’s 6th best team on the road in a game in which Wake Forest led in the second half, but it’s just wash, rinse, and repeat. So many times Wake Forest has been winning or tied with less than 10 minutes to play against excellent teams, and so many times the Deacs collapse. In the past week and a half it’s happened in 3 out of 4 games. There really isn’t much else to say about this game given that we’ve been over this enough times.
Wake Forest will host North Carolina on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The action can be seen on ESPN2.
