GREENSBORO – First, Daivien Williamson just wanted to get the stop when Joe Girard dribbled right and angled for a fadeaway.

Check.

There was a rebound to grab, which Williamson did. With the last few seconds bleeding off the clock and Wake Forest out of timeouts, it was time to find Tyree Appleby and get moving into transition.

Check and check.

Andrew Carr set the screen to get Appleby some space, and Appleby delivered the ball back to Williamson for a game-winning shot.

Swish.

And then, when Wake Forest’s 77-74 win over Syracuse in the second round of the ACC tournament on Wednesday was finalized, it was time for a little reflection about the last time the Deacons played in the Greensboro Coliseum.

“We were basically on the other side of this two years ago,” said Wake’s fifth-year senior said. “Things come full circle, it means a lot.”

Williamson is the only scholarship player remaining from Steve Forbes’ first team at Wake Forest. That season, a 6-16 trek that ended with an eight-game losing streak, came to an abrupt end in this same building when Williamson’s shot in the final seconds of a tied game was blocked, and Notre Dame’s Trey Wertz made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

That game two years ago isn’t what Williamson, the longest-tenured scholarship Deacon, was thinking about entering the week. There was plenty to ponder, given ninth-seeded Wake Forest (19-13) had a rematch with a Syracuse team that beat it by nine four days earlier.

But given the way Wednesday’s final seconds unraveled, it was hard to not think back to the painful ending of 730ish days ago.

“It’s good to see things come back full circle,” said Williamson, who had 17 points. “I was on the other end of that and it really hurt, so I had to make sure when I was in that situation, I made the right play this time.”

Williamson making the right play means the Deacons will play top-seeded Miami on Thursday. It’s Wake’s first trip to the quarterfinals of this event since 2009.

Along with Williamson’s game-winner, Wake Forest got a game-tying shot by Cameron Hildreth on the previous possession. The whirling jumper from the lane by Hildreth, who scored nine of his 15 points in the final six minutes, caught the attention of Kevin Durant.

As for his coach’s take on the shot:

“Cam, you know, that's a shot we work on every day, right? Wrong,” Forbes said. “But that's some English shit that he does.

“I don't know, man. I have to go watch that one. He shot it, and it went in. I'm like, hey, man, great shot.”

That’s the shot that shouldn’t be forgotten; Williamson’s shot is the one that you’ll always remember.

It came from a fifth-year player who’s been at Wake Forest for three years and, statistically, has had his worst season. Williamson’s O-rating, per KenPom, is the lowest it’s been in his five seasons; it’s the first time since he was a freshman at East Tennessee State that he’s averaging single-digit points and, barring an explosion in whatever is left of the season, it’ll be the lowest average of his career.

So, what a sweet moment of redemption for the hometown player.

“It's unbelievable to think that I signed him at Winston-Salem Prep and now at East Tennessee State,” Forbes said, “played a bunch of games in here with the curtains down against Greensboro, and now here we are.

“I don't think you could write a better story than that for him.”

Williamson’s bucket was the last stroke in a back-and-forth game.

Wake Forest scored the first four points and led 6-5 early before trailing for the rest of the first half and first few minutes of the second half.

The Deacons committed eight first-half turnovers and were kept afloat by freshman Bobi Klintman, who had a team-high 17 points and 11 rebounds in his fourth start of the season. The points are a season high; the rebound total is one shy of his season high.

“I feel like every game has been a game where I feel more comfortable, and my teammates trust me,” the freshman said. “In practice they (tell) me to shoot the ball more and stuff like that, so just play with confidence and just do what I can do. It's helped me a lot.”

Klintman had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, a surge of that coming after the Orange’s lead was 22-10. He exited because of foul trouble and when Syracuse went up six, Williamson converted a four-point play to keep things tight.

The Deacons turned this game around in the opening stage of the second half with a 17-1 run. What was a 41-37 deficit became a 48-42 lead on an alley-oop from Appleby to Klintman, prompting a timeout by coach Jim Boeheim.

When Appleby and Williamson drilled 3-pointers in the next minute, extending the lead to 54-42, Boeheim called another timeout.

“We just needed to get out in transition more,” Forbes said of the offensive adjustment from the regular-season finale to Wednesday. “I think you saw when we got going, we were really good in transition.

“Got the ball to the middle of the zone, got it out quick, then made a second attack off the dribble and we got inside the zone a lot more this time and we ball screened the top of the zone.”

It worked; Wake Forest made nine 3-pointers and was 19-for-34 from inside the arc, taking six more 2s than 3s against the 2-3 zone.