Stellar guard play propels Wake Forest to 81-71 win over Georgia
Wake Forest picked up their second win of the season on Friday night, defeating Georgia 81-71. The Deacs controlled the game from start to finish, leading for nearly 37 minutes of gameplay and emerging with a second consecutive double-digit victory.
READ: Live Updates: Wake Forest vs Georgia
“We talk about this a lot, getting the game plan into the game,” head coach Steve Forbes said. “They did as good a job of that, for the young team that they are, in the second game of the year, that I’ve [seen] in a while.”
Wake’s starting guards were superb, accounting for over 50% of the team’s points. Daivien Williamson had 24 points, four rebounds and four assists, while Tyree Appleby added 22 points, six rebounds and six assists of his own. Appleby set Williamson up for multiple open looks — one of his three three-pointers came on a beautiful cross-court feed from the Florida transfer.
“It’s fun playing with a guy who can see the floor like him,” Williamson said of Appleby. “He puts me in positions to score the ball a lot. When you have a guy like that on your team, it instills a lot more confidence in you.”
After a somewhat slow start in the first eight minutes, the first half was a show of dominance from Wake Forest. After 20 minutes, the Deacs led 41-22 and held the Bulldogs to 30% shooting from the field. The Deacs’ defense was stifling, forcing long possessions in addition to eight Bulldog turnovers, which led to eight points on the other end.
“I thought the first half was about as good as we could play defensively,” Forbes said. “We were really locked in. But I wasn’t surprised, because that’s the way we practiced. I thought we were flawless in pick-and-roll coverage [in the first half], causing them a lot of problems.”
In the second half, though, Wake Forest wasn’t as sharp. The Deacs were outscored 49-40 in the second period and gave up a 15-3 run to the Bulldogs at one point, letting the lead dwindle to single digits. Wake also got in some foul trouble down the stretch, as Bobi Klintman fouled out with roughly four minutes to go.
“We got sloppy, we got up big and we just got careless,” Forbes said. “It’s kind of a tale of two halves. The game turned a little bit there, we have some young guys who probably didn’t make very good decisions.”
Forbes went deep into his bench again — every active scholarship player other than Matthew Marsh saw at least seven minutes of action. Cameron Hildreth led the way for the reserves, finishing the game with 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting and a team-high 11 rebounds.
“He’s just a hard playing dude,” Forbes said of Hildreth. “He made a big three when we kind of needed a little more cushion. He got his own rebound off a free throw — who does that? He has the chance to be a really good player.”
The team excelled on the boards in the victory, out-rebounding Georgia 39-34. As a team with small guards, rebounding was one of the concerns Forbes had about his team heading into the season. To see such a strong performance in that category, especially so early in the year, is encouraging.
“We always tend to rely on the big guys to get the ball, right?” Forbes said. “But it’s not, the guards have to get those 50-50 balls. We got the majority of those and I think we’ve gotten better with that. You have to box out, but you also have to go get them.”
As is expected for a young team with so many new pieces, this Demon Deacon team has plenty of room to grow. And two wins — against two quality out-of-conference opponents — provide reason to be optimistic moving into the rest of the season.
“I thought it was a really good win for our team, especially for our second game of the year,” Forbes said. “We’ve played two really good opponents, both different, and [both] will pay off down the road.”
Wake Forest will face off against Utah Valley on Tuesday. Tipoff is set for 7 ET.
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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.