In what has been the story of the season so far, the Deacs came within seconds of pulling off a big upset win against a ranked team, only to come up short in the end. Despite trailing for nearly the entire game, Wake had a chance at the buzzer to send the game to OT, but Nate Calmese’s 3-pointer wouldn’t drop. With the loss, the Deacs fall to 10-7 overall and 1-3 in the conference.
Full disclosure, once the Deacs got behind 16-4 in the first 6 minutes of the game, I demoted this game to TV #2 in favor of the Panthers’ playoff game, so I was not completely locked in on what was going on. That was probably for the best anyways, since outside of the game being tied 2-2, the Deacs trailed the whole way in this one. Despite not being my primary focus, I saw enough to get the gist of the first half, because every time I looked over at the game, either Juke Harris was hitting a 3-pointer, or 1 of the 2 UNC big men were dunking the ball. Juke finished the first half with 16 points and shot 4-9 from beyond the arc, while Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar combined for 28 points on 11-12 shooting and helped the Heels score 38 of their 49 points in the half in the paint. Interior defense was a big problem for the Deacs in their last game against Miami, and it continued to be an issue in the first half against Carolina. Despite hitting 8 3-pointers in the first half, Wake trailed by 11 at the break.
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Things got interesting in the 2nd half, as Wake did a much better job keeping the Heels out of the paint and were able to start making a comeback behind the play of point guard Nate Calmese. With 9:50 remaining in the game, Carolina took a commanding 15 point lead on a 3-pointer from Jaydon Young. From that moment, Calmese went off, scoring 12 of Wake’s next 17 points.
While Calmese starting cooking, the Deacs locked in on defense and held North Carolina without a field goal for a full 6 minutes, allowing Wake to go on a 17-3 to pull within 1 point. It was a valiant effort to get back in the game, but the Deacs just never got over the hump. Even with Calmese scoring 5 points in 7 seconds at the end of the game, the Heels made enough free throws down the stretch to hold on and grab their 500th win in the Dean Dome.
This was a heck of an effort from Calmese and Harris, who more or less put the team on their back and willed Wake Forest back into the game. The two guards combined for 56 of Wake’s 84 points on 20-34 shooting and made 12 3-pointers. Calmese put together what is statistically one of the best games from a Wake Forest point guard in program history with 28 points, 4 rebounds, and 9 assists—it still wasn’t enough to get the win.
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The Deacs just cannot compete with teams that have a dominant frontcourt, and this game was another example of that. Wilson and Veesaar combined for 47 points on 17-19 shooting, 21 rebounds, and 7 assists—that’s just way too big of a gap when the Wake frontcourt goes for 18 points and 3 combined rebounds between 3 players. Yes, you read that correctly—between Tre’von Spillers (2), Omaha Billiew (1), and Cooper Schwieger (0), the Wake Forest big men combined for 3 total rebounds tonight in 69 combined minutes. The lack of an Efton Reid type big man down low is a glaring weakness for this team, and Wake is going to continue to struggle if they cannot find a way to stop the opposing front court from going for 50 points with just 2 missed shots.
Another close loss put the Deacs at 1-3 and 13th in the ACC standings. Wake plays good teams close enough to show that they are a good basketball team, but if they don’t start winning some of these close games, they may find themselves battling just for the chance to actually attend the ACC Tournament this season.
Onto Florida State.
Go Deacs.
