Takeaways from Wake Forest's 81-64 win over Notre Dame
Wake Forest righted the ship on Saturday afternoon, snapping a four-game losing streak with an 81-64 road victory over Notre Dame. The Deacs overcame a slow start and scored 54 points in the second half. Here’s what we learned in the victory.
Bobi is breaking out
Swedish freshman Bobi Klintman’s numbers over the past two games are as follows: 55 minutes played, 18 points (9.0 ppg) 7/8 FG, 4/4 3PT, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks, one steal and two TOs for a combined +10. Klintman is coming into his own and shooting with confidence, taking smart shots within the flow of the offense and knocking them down. Steve Forbes has also praised his rebounding — he’s grabbed four boards per game over the last two contests.
As Forbes said after the Duke game, it’s taken him a bit to get acclimated to the college game, but Klintman is figuring things out on both ends of the floor. What jumps out most about his recent statlines is the efficiency and the positive plus-minus — Klintman isn’t settling for poor looks when he checks in off the bench, and the rest of the team is statistically better when he’s out there.
Klintman opens up a lot of doors for this team when he’s playing well, and his ability to stretch the floor with his shooting and athleticism at the forward spot allows Forbes to do what he loves to do: go small. In fact, when the lineup consisting of Damari Monsanto, Klintman and Andrew Carr at the 3/4/5 spots is on the floor, The Deacs are +49 over 73 total minutes with a 55% assist rate.
If Klintman can continue to provide high-quality minutes through the rest of ACC play, Wake has a much better chance to embark on a great stretch run and perhaps turn some heads in the ACC Tournament.
Damari Monsanto keeps getting better
Damari Monsanto bounced back in a major way on Saturday, reaching new career highs in both points and made three-pointers after pouring in 28 on eight triples. Monsanto was scorching hot all day long, even dropping some jaws with a deep ball from the logo in the second half.
Perhaps Monsanto’s most impressive stretch of the day came right at the beginning of the second half, when he drilled three triples in the first two minutes, helping the Deacs extend their lead from one point to eight in seemingly no time at all. Yesterday was Monsanto at his best, giving the Deacs efficient (9/15 FG, 8/13 3PT) and instant offense in a way that few others on the team — or in the conference — can.
However, even on a day where Monsanto was shooting the lights out, his game was not one-dimensional. He pulled down seven rebounds, dished out an assist and added a block, though he did turn the ball over three times.
With Monsanto’s good size, long wingspan and ability to knock down contested shots, he becomes a nearly impossible matchup for opposing teams. This showed yesterday, when nothing Notre Dame did defensively seemed to slow him down in the slightest. Monsanto seems to be continuing his upward trajectory as the Deacs enter the home stretch of conference play — and they’ll need every last bucket.
Wake got away with another slow start
It was overshadowed because they ended up winning by 17 on the road, but the first 10 minutes of that game represented perhaps Wake Forest’s poorest offensive effort of the entire season. Halfway through the first period, the Deacs had scored just four points and were under 25% from the field with eight turnovers. That is some truly putrid offensive basketball, and for a while it seemed like the Deacs were headed for another ice-cold shooting night.
Fortunately, Wake Forest was bailed out by a poor start from the Irish as well, who went 0/8 from long range in the first half and shot just 34.5% from the field. Steve Forbes’ group was able to find their footing later in the half and stormed back to take a one-point lead into intermission. Damari Monsanto then lit it up to begin the second half and the rest of history.
It shows a lot of maturity that the Deacs could overcome such a nightmarish first 10 minutes and find a way to win, but the sluggish start is still alarming. Notre Dame is three games below .500 on the season and has just two conference wins. If Wake gets off to a similar start against UNC, NC State or Miami, they’ll be buried and the game will quickly get out of reach.
This has already been proven in the Deacs’ losses to Pitt and Virginia — they trailed by 10 at half in both of those games and despite finding their footing in the second period couldn’t do enough to get over the hump. Wake came away with a much-needed win on Saturday, but signs of inconsistency need to be addressed.
The Deacs return to action Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET as they take on UNC in the Joel.
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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.