Wake Forest's comeback effort falls short in ACC Tournament loss to Miami
For the second consecutive day, Daivien Williamson had a shot to lift Wake Forest to a dramatic win. After drilling a game-winner yesterday against Syracuse, his last-second heave missed off the backboard and the Deacs’ furious late-game comeback failed, ending their ACC Tournament campaign with a 74-72 loss against Miami. The Deacs trailed by as many as 18 in the second half, but cut the deficit all the way to two in the game’s final moments.
“I thought we played another outstanding game today,” Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said. “We had tremendous effort, fight, resilience, no quit. I thought we represented our team and school to the highest level today. Had a chance to win it. It would have been a hell of a story if we could have made it. Back-to-back buzzer beaters would have been something else, but it wasn’t in the cards.”
From Miami’s perspective, the Canes were given all they could handle, tested by Wake’s guard play and size inside. Tyree Appleby finished with a game-high 24 points, Cam Hildreth added 17 and seven assists, and Bobi Klintman had seven points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
“I don’t consider them a middling ACC team,” Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga said. “We’re very fortunate that we won today. Tyree Appleby [is] the leading scorer in our league and leader in assists, one of the best point guards in the country. Their size bothered us. We took the ball to the basket and almost every one of our guys got [a shot] blocked.”
A switch seemed to flip for Wake Forest at the eight-minute mark in the second half. Wake Forest trailed 61-48 then outscored Miami by 11 the rest of the way and nearly stole a win away from the Hurricanes. The key to the comeback was execution in one of the team’s weakest areas — defense.
“We stayed positive the whole time,” Forbes said. “We just felt like [if] we could string some stops together, we could score. I kept telling them, if we get it under 10, we’ve got a shot. You’ve got to give them all the credit. They kept fighting on the defensive end, got some blocked shots, got some rebounds, got some steals, made some tough shots. I thought we did a good job guarding them.”
“I felt like we had confidence even when we were down, so I wasn’t really too worried,” Tyree Appleby added.
Wake dug themselves a hole early in the second half, getting sloppy with the ball and allowing Miami to open up an 18-point lead. The Deacs also struggled to defend the trio of Norchad Omier, Jordan Miller and Isaiah Wong, who finished with a combined 49 points on 20/34 shooting. Down the stretch, Wake had a chance to make things even closer, but struggled from the charity stripe in key moments. The squad finished 50% from the foul line after going a perfect 12/12 yesterday against Syracuse.
“I thought that when they extended the lead, they hurt us on the offensive glass, transition D, and some of our turnovers,” Forbes said. “They were opportunistic in that respect. Only seven for 14 from the free-throw line, that probably ended up hurting us. We’re a better free-throw shooting team than that for sure. When it gets down to a narrow margin like that, it makes it harder.”
With the loss, Wake Forest is eliminated from the ACC Tournament and will await their postseason fate, hopeful for an NIT bid. However, those among the program know there are certainly no guarantees in that department.
“I’m not very confident in anything when it comes to postseason play where I sit,” Forbes said. “I don’t think we always get what we deserve. Unfortunately, what you do in league play really doesn’t have anything to do with postseason play. It’s just metrics. So I don’t know what our metrics will look like today. I don’t know. You guys have seen us play, I think we’re pretty good.”
If Thursday’s loss was in fact the end of the season, it’s now time to reflect on the campaign and look ahead at what’s to come. With plenty of young talent returning and a portal-savvy head coach, the future should be bright for Steve Forbes’ Demon Deacons. The goals for next year are clear — ascend up the ranks of the ACC and get back to the big dance.
“I think the next step is to finish in the top four in the league, to play on Friday and Saturday here,” Forbes said. “We got to Thursday — now we’ve got to get to Friday and Saturday and to have a good seed in the NCAA Tournament and win some games. That’s always been the plan every year.”
“We’ve got some good young players that have got to get better,” Forbes continued. “Cameron [Hildreth] and Damari [Monsanto] made tremendous strides, [as did] Matthew Marsh. Bobi showed us what he can do late in the year. I think we’re in a good place. We’ve got to continue to add good players and work hard, and I think we’re definitely on the upswing with this program.”
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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.