Deacons dash past Miami in OT

WINSTON-SALEM – The Kevin Miller-to-Andrew Carr drive-and-kick to the left corner worked earlier this week for a 3-point clincher.

On Saturday, it was Cameron Hildreth-to-Hunter Sallis drive-and-kick to the left corner for a 3-point clincher.

“Cam hit me, Cam’s got confidence in me to keep hitting those shots even if I miss 10 in a row,” said Sallis, who was 7-for-21 from the field.

That was the last bit of shot-making needed for Wake Forest to beat Miami 86-82 in overtime at Joel Coliseum, the Deacons notching their ninth straight win and further establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the early stages of ACC play.

The Deacons (11-3, 3-0 ACC) are one of three teams with that start to league play; the others are UNC and N.C. State (who play each other Wednesday).

In this high-level game, we went to overtime despite Wake Forest never leading for the last 10½ minutes of regulation and trailing by as much as five in overtime.

One of coach Steve Forbes’ main points with Tuesday night’s win at Boston College was that his team showed maturity and toughness. It was the point to be made again, with this Miami (11-3, 2-1) team that returned a chunk of players from a Final Four team never able to pull away.

“One of the things that I think is really impressive about our team is they don’t really get too up or too down,” Forbes said. “Their body language is pretty even-keel.”

That was most apparent and relevant in overtime, when Miami scored on its first two possessions — Nijel Pack hitting a 3 on an offensive rebound on the second one — to grab a 78-73 lead.

Wake Forest answered with eight straight points, the last three of those coming on a Miller 3-pointer after Efton Reid III’s tap-out — his second offensive rebound of that possession and seventh of the game.

“We just kept punching back,” Forbes said. “We made a couple of unselfish plays for wide-open shots.”

After a couple of free throws by Norchad Omier, who had 20 points and 13 rebounds, cut it to a one-point game, the game’s next bucket was Sallis’ corner 3.

That gave Sallis 18 points. Miller led the way with a game-high 27, making 10 of 19 shots, and Hildreth had 21 points, connecting on five 3-pointers (he’s 10-for-15 beyond the arc in Wake’s three ACC games).

This wasn’t quite the scoring bonanza you might have thought it’d be, with Miami at 1.08 points per possession and Wake Forest at 1.16.

It was a battle for rebounds, though, with Wake Forest holding the edge at 43-40.

“I have no idea where Wake Forest is ranked. This is their ninth straight win,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “They’re a very, very good team. Especially now with Efton Reid.”

The Deacons had a season-high 18 offensive rebounds. In the first seven games — before Reid was cleared to play — Wake Forest had double-digit offensive rebounds once. In the seven games since, the Deacons have had double-digit offensive rebounds four times.

Winning a game on Jan. 6 won’t have the biggest of possible impacts, but for Wake Forest, it was another step in the right direction — and against a program that went to the Final Four and Elite Eight in the last two seasons.

“I’m really proud of my team. I challenged them before the game,” Forbes said. “I said, you know, ‘We’ve gotta keep taking steps.’ Miami has been where we want to be, they’ve done what we want to do. They’re one of the best programs in our league.

“We have to win games like this to get back to where Wake Forest basketball wants to be.”

It came oh-so-close to not being that way: Matthew Cleveland’s jumper from the elbow as time expired in regulation touched a lot of the rim before falling harmlessly to the floor.

In those last 10½ minutes of regulation, when Wake Fores never led but also didn’t let Miami create separation, the Deacons scored to tie the game seven times. Three of those buckets came from Miller, who’s the exception to analytics’ preference of not taking contested 2-point shots.

“I work on those type of shots every day, late at night,” Miller said. “So, I believe in myself. I’ma shoot them if I feel like I can make them.”

The last instance of Wake Forest tying the game in that stretch were a couple of free throws by Hildreth with 22 seconds left.

Wake Forest held a seven-point lead at halftime. An 18-3 run early, after weathering the Hurricanes’ (sorry) hot start that featured three 3s, put the Deacons in control for most of the first half.

Of those 18 points, 12 of them came on four 3s by Hildreth. Before this game, the junior guard had made three 3s in a game once in his career — and that was in Wake’s game at Boston College on Tuesday night.

Miami erased Wake’s seven-point halftime lead with the first seven points of the second half; Wake Forest answered with a 7-0 run of its own. Miami grabbed the lead that it carried into the last 10ish minutes with a 12-2 run.

TIP-INS: Miami was without Wooga Poplar, its second-leading scorer, for the second straight game. … Freshman Kyshawn George, who’s started four games in a row, led Miami with 21 points. He’s 6-8 and his defense on Sallis in the second half played a large role in Wake’s top scorer being 7-for-21 from the field. … This snapped a four-game winning streak by Miami in the series against Wake Forest. The Deacons’ last win against the Hurricanes was in January of 2021, a season in which both teams finished near the bottom of the ACC. … Wake’s nine-game winning streak is the longest since the Deacons won 16 games to open the 2008-09 season. That’s also the last time the Deacons started ACC play 3-0; the first loss that season was in the fourth ACC game (against Virginia Tech). Wake Forest hasn’t started 4-0 in ACC play since 2005.