Wake Forest outlasts Louisville despite ugly second half
Wake Forest eked out an 80-72 win on the road against Louisville, advancing to 11-5 despite a poor second half and a feverish comeback attempt by the Cardinals. Wake Forest led by 17 at half and let the lead dwindle to as few as three points — there was even a span where Louisville hit nine-straight field goals.
After a strong start to the game, Wake Forest struggled to close the door.
“I thought we played great for the first half,” Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said. “To their credit, they put on the gas and did a great job of putting pressure on the room. To take the next step as an NCAA Tournament team, you have to put the pedal on when you have them down. I didn’t think we did that.”
Wake Forest’s biggest issue on Saturday afternoon was rebounding, or a lack thereof. Louisville outrebounded the Deacs 36-31, grabbed 15 offensive boards and scored 16 second-chance points. The extra possessions allowed the Cardinals to claw back into a game that Wake appeared to have well in hand most of the way.
“They got a bunch of offensive rebounds, we fouled too much,” Forbes said. “That’s the two worst things that can happen when you have a big lead, when they can score when the clock’s not moving. I thought our bigs did not play well, not one of them.”
Though Louisville is just 2-13 and winless in ACC play, the Cardinals brought their best effort in front of a home crowd on Saturday afternoon. Standout point guard El Ellis finished with 20 points on 7/13 shooting, and redshirt freshman Mike James torched the Deacs to the tune of 24 points on 9/16 shooting and 5/9 from deep.
“I think Kenny [Payne] is doing a great job with them,” Forbes said. “James got going, he made a couple of tough threes. He played really well. Ellis was hurt, but he came back in and kept putting pressure on us. They got good size, good length. They’ll win some games.”
However, when Louisville caught fire and trimmed a once-22-point lead to three, Cameron Hildreth and Damari Monsanto both made big shots to help Wake put the game on ice.
Monsanto finished with a team-high 21 points (8/16 FG, 5/12 3PT) and drilled two triples in the final 2:20 to answer the barrage of points from Louisville. Hildreth made a couple nice driving layups in the final five minutes and served as the primary ball handler with Tyree Appleby in foul trouble for some of the second half. He added 19 points, eight rebounds, two assists and a steal.
“Credit to my team for staying tough-minded when it was getting hard in there,” Forbes said. “I called a timeout and I think we scored five-straight times after that. Cameron made some big shots and Damari made some big threes.”
Though it was ugly, Wake Forest did ultimately get the result they desired, notching their third ACC win of the season in a road environment and bouncing back from the loss to UNC. As chaotic as the conference has been so far, every win counts, no matter how it looks.
“I’m really proud of my team to come in here today and get a win,” Forbes said. “I was nervous. We had the potential to not finish. I fully expected [Louisville] to hang in there. Credit to my team for calming down and winning the game.”
Wake Forest returns to the Joel Wednesday night with a matchup against Florida State. Tip off is set for 9 p.m. ET on ACC Network.
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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.