Deacons work past Notre Dame

WASHINGTON – There’s taking things one day at a time and the cognizance that you “owed them one.”

Both things were true in Wake Forest’s 72-59 win over Notre Dame in the second round of the ACC tournament on Wednesday at Capital One Arena.

The fifth-seeded Deacons (20-12), who play No. 4-seed Pittsburgh at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, exacted some revenge for a 70-65 loss at Notre Dame on Feb. 27.

“I felt like our team rallied together defensively,” guard Hunter Sallis said. “And I mean, we definitely owed them one.”

Wake’s loss in South Bend was the first of a three-game losing streak that knocked the Deacons from the favorable side of NCAA tournament projections to the outside-looking-in spot they’re still in. Beating Pitt, also on the bubble, could change that.

But first came paying back the Irish (13-20).

“That was our mentality going into this game,” Sallis said of the payback factor. “Just playing with that chip on our shoulder and definitely getting after them.”

And, if you’re familiar with this team’s plight with halftime leads away from Joel Coliseum, there was some redemption in how the Deacons handled that situation.

Wake’s lead was 40-34 at the break. The record in ACC road games was 2-8, and in six of those losses — including the game in South Bend — the Deacons held a halftime lead.

Andrew Carr had a dunk on Wake’s first possession of the second half. Efton Reid III made a hook 90 seconds later and the offensive efficiency was mostly steady, and that meshed well with a defensive intensity that meant Notre Dame’s first field goal of the second half came 6½ minutes into the frame.

“It's time to change, time to grow up, time to whatever you want to use. It's go time,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “I thought we came out and did a really good job establishing on both ends of the court in the second half and not relying on just our offense or our defense to win the game.”

Wake’s lead shrunk to six twice early in the second half, but never lower. The closest the score was in the final 10 minutes was nine, and both of those occasions, the Deacons scored on their next possession.

“I think we had a different mindset going into this game,” Reid said. “We just need to execute that every time because, you know, we have a history of doing that. But for us, it’s one game at a time. … That’s all it’s about, just playing hard every possession and winning the possessions you need to win.”

Reid had eight points and eight rebounds, and Carr had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Miller led Wake Forest with 17 points, most of his damage coming on mid-range shots. Sallis scored 14, 12 of it coming in the first 11 minutes.

Wake’s 38-14 advantage in points in the paint told the story of where this game was won, along with turning 10 turnovers by Notre Dame into 15 points.

“We wanted to finish at the rim because they had a small guy at the rim,” Forbes said. “We have a good-sized team. I thought it was really important to be body between and force them to shoot tough 2s over us. … But I just thought we were there all the time to make it hard for them to get — to make shots.”

Wake Forest didn’t take long getting out and taking advantage of early offense.

Sallis made a secondary-break 3 on Wake’s first possession and Miller drained one on the next possession.

That was misleading, though. The Deacons made one more 3 for the rest of the first half — from Sallis, only about four minutes after Miller’s — and that was a combination of missing some open ones and needing to go inside to score.

Wake’s five 3-pointers match the fewest the Deacons have made in a win this season; they also made five in a November win over Charleston Southern, and the 29-point win at Georgia Tech.

Notre Dame’s offense was the opposite.

Twelve of the Irish’s first 15 points came on 3-pointers, and the Irish were 6-for-15 in the first half. A couple of the early ones were contested and just better shots against good defense; the ones that bothered Wake’s bench were the wide-open ones that came because of miscommunications and lack of awareness as far as who could be left open.

Notre Dame finished 6-for-23 on 3-pointers, missing all eight in the second half. Going hand-in-hand with Wake’s stingy defense was a team playing its second game in as many days, as the Irish dispatched Georgia Tech 84-80 in the first round.

“Credit to Wake Forest,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “Just an old, veteran team that was trying to get into the NCAA tournament, and that's what they looked like. That's how they played.

“I thought they started the game with a little more juice than we did and got to a quick 8-0 run, and we just played from behind the whole game.”

TIP-INS: Notre Dame was 14-for-49 from the field, with an effective field goal percentage of 34.7%. That’s Wake’s best defensive clip in that stat since the 29-point win at Georgia Tech (30.8%). … Forbes now has as many ACC tournament wins as Wake’s last three coaches combined. Dino Gaudio was 0-3, Jeff Bzdelik was 1-4 and Danny Manning was 1-6. Forbes is now 2-3. … Carr had 12 points and 11 rebounds, his fourth double-double of the season and first since the Feb. 6 blowout win at Georgia Tech. … Neither Damari Monsanto nor Jao Ituka were on Wake’s bench. Both of them still appear on Wake’s online roster.