Deacons’ season ends with NIT loss

Wake Forest was missing its first-team All-ACC player and was down 19 in the second half of its second round NIT game against Georgia.

A comeback fell short, with the Deacons falling 72-66 on Sunday at Joel Coliseum.

Georgia (19-16) moves on to face Ohio State, which beat Virginia Tech, in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

Wake Forest (21-14) ended its season without Hunter Sallis, the Deacons’ leading scorer and this season’s transfer portal star guard. He missed the game with an ankle injury that occurred after Wake’s win over Appalachian State in Wednesday night’s first round game.

The Bulldogs made 14 3-pointers, 10 of them in the first half. Wake Forest hadn’t given up more than 11 3s in a game this season, and the game it gave up 11 was the win over Duke. Wake Forest had only given up double-digit 3s four times in the first 34 games.

That led to a 15-point halftime lead for Georgia, which beat the Deacons for the second time this season (previously on Nov. 10). The Bulldogs pushed the lead to 19 in the first few minutes of the second half.

Wake Forest rallied, going on an 8-0 run immediately after the lead hit 19, and getting the deficit down to single digits with more than 10 minutes left. The margin waffled between 5-10 for the next several minutes, and Georgia led 68-56 with 2:50 left.

The Deacons scored the next eight points, six of them on free throws, to narrow things down one more time. That was as close as it got, though, as Georgia made four free throws in the last 40 seconds to ice the game.

Andrew Carr led Wake Forest with 31 points, adding 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. Kevin Miller scored 14 and Cameron Hildreth added 12 points. Efton Reid III had seven points and nine rebounds; the only other player to score for Wake Forest was Abramo Canka, who had two points.

Parker Friedrichsen, who started for Sallis, missed all six shots he took.