The Deacs picked up win number 3 today after blowing out UMass Lowell by 34 points. This is going to be a pretty quick recap, because this game was not close at all.
Wake started the game a little sluggish, which is to be expected in a Sunday afternoon game. The River Hawks hung around for a good part of the 1st half behind 12 points from JJ Massaquoi. With 51 seconds remaining in the half, Xavier Simpson hit a jumper to bring UML to within 2 points, and that was pretty much it for the River Hawks. The Deacs finished the final 51 seconds of the half with an 8-0 run, including a Myles Colvin half-court shot at the buzzer.
That run just continued into the 2nd half—from that jumper at 51 seconds to 10:45 in the 2nd half, the Deacs went on a 43-11 run to take a commanding 37-point lead in the game. That lead would grow as high as 41 but ended at 34 points after the walk-ons got a few minutes to play towards the end of the game. The huge run was propelled by Wake amping up their defensive pressure, resulting in 10 2nd half turnovers for ULM and 14 fast break points for the Deacs.
Wake also shot a steamy 43% from beyond the arc in the game, hitting on 13 of their 30 3-point attempts. Juke Harris and Tre’von Spillers led the way for Wake with 21 points apiece, and Omaha Biliew had a nice bounce back game with 13 points on 100% shooting from the field, including 3-3 from beyond the arc.
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I’m typically against playing teams this bad after the 1st game of the season, but it’s nice to see Wake finally blow out an inferior opponent. For me, it’s just hard to take anything away from beating a team that has 1 win over a D-III program and went viral for being behind 53-7 against UConn a week ago. Despite that, hopefully the big win gives the team a confidence boost heading into the Baha Mar MTE where they will see #11 Texas Tech and potentially #2 Purdue. Those games will likely have a huge impact on the Deacs fate on Selection Sunday.
Go Deacs!
