Key Stats from Wake Forest's 77-57 loss to Clemson
Wake Forest fell apart in the second half against Clemson on Friday night, falling to the Tigers 77-57 on the road to open up ACC play. Wake Forest led by seven at half but couldn’t finish the job — here are the stats that stood out in the Deacs’ second loss of the season.
A tale of two halves
Wake Forest went into halftime leading 33-26 and was beginning to play some solid basketball on both ends of the floor. Everything fell apart after the break, though, as the Deacs were outscored 51-24 in the last 20 minutes and Clemson went 8/12 from three-point land. Clemson senior Alex Hemenway was lethal, knocking down all four of his three-pointers in the second period. Conversely, Wake went just 2/13 from three and shot 24% from the field in that span. Wake Forest failed to string together quality possessions on either end and Clemson took advantage.
Shooting struggles
After converting on 53.7% of their field goals against Wisconsin, the Deacs shot just 34% from the field and 29% from three-point land. The starting lineup went 11/41 from the field, and Tyree Appleby was held to eight points on 3/13 shooting after putting up 32 points just a few days ago against the Badgers. Clemson was remarkably efficient from the field, connecting on 22 of their 43 field goal attempts, good for a 51% success rate.
Free throws
Clemson was much more effective getting to the line than Wake Forest, attempting 25 free throws compared to the Deacs’ 14. The Tigers were nearly perfect from the charity stripe, drilling 24 of their 25 attempts (96%) — Wake, on the other hand, made just nine of their 14 foul shots (64%).
Rebounding
Clemson dominated the boards, out-rebounding Wake Forest 38-24 and 36-19 on the defensive end. On a night where Wake Forest struggled shooting the ball, Clemson prevented the Deacs from getting any extra possessions and finding a rhythm along the way. Wake Forest pulled down just five offensive rebounds and scored only one second chance point. This is a sharp departure from the Wisconsin game, where Wake posted 33 total boards and won the rebounding battle by 10.
Assists
The Tigers held the edge in this metric, posting 15 total assists to Wake Forest’s 8. Some of the Deacs’ offensive woes came from an excess of isolation play and poor ball movement, struggles that are hard to overcome when the shots aren’t falling. Interestingly enough, the Deacs also tallied 8 assists in Tuesday’s road win over Wisconsin.
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Ben is a managing editor and lead contributing writer for Deacons Daily. Ben has a year of experience as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black, and a year of experience as the publication’s print managing editor. He has a journalistic profile of over 40 published news and sports pieces for the Dayton Daily News.