Deacs improve in loss at #22 Virginia 70-61

Wake Forest traveled up to Virginia on Wednesday night to face a tough Cavaliers squad and nearly pulled off an upset before coming up short 70-61. Wake Forest led 39-34 at the half in John Paul Jones Arena behind hot three-point shooting by Ismael Massoud and Jonah Antonio who each hit for six three-point attempts in the game. Wake hit 10 of their 19 three-point attempts against Virginia, but turnovers remained an issue with the Deacs having 13 compared to just six for Virginia.

The Cavs outscored Wake 36-22 in the final frame extending their lead to 10 points several times behind a balanced scoring attack that saw all five of Virginia's starters in double figures led by Sam Hauser's double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Wake coach Steve Forbes was fascinated seeing Virginia's style of play up close and personal.

"I don't believe in moral victories, and you got to play two halves to win a game, especially against a team like Virginia, I thought we really played as well as we could play in the first half. On both offense and defense, though, a big change from the game Sunday, Georgia Tech on offense, as we move the ball and share the ball, we spent a lot of time on that last 48 hours of sharing the ball. And when you do that, we have good enough shooters to make shots. And we did that in the first half," he said. "I thought we were in good shape, I knew we'd have to come out and second half, and play the same way. And, you know, we turned it over, we didn't have very many, only six turnovers and a half, we had some really untimely turnovers in the second half, that led to baskets. And as you guys know, when you get behind, it's hard to come back. Because there are long possessions, I don't think I've ever coached a game where the clock hardly ever stops that much. It's kind of bizarre."

Isaiah Mucius had a strong game with 14 points and seven rebounds.

"I knew I could dominate a little in the paint and then I could throw it to Jonah out of the paint. It had Virginia in a tornado a bunch of the time," Mucius said of the strong start. "I think we continued the ball movement, but they made adjustments in the second half and we are going to continue making adjustments and getting better."

Also, Wake hit just five of 11 free-throw attempts in the game while Virginia hit eight of their ten attempts.

"We can't go five for 11 at the free-throw line which is shocking to me. Now we can't do that, because I know we have guys that can really shoot the ball. But I thought I really talked to them about response tonight before we went out, but how do you respond to adversity? You know, it's part of life. You learn from your mistakes you change some skills, and you move on and you respond to the next challenge. And I thought we did. We just didn't get it done for 40 minutes," Forbes said.

Forbes shuffled his lineup and put true freshman Carter Whitt in at point guard and Jonah Antonio at the two and Isaiah Wilkins in place of Daivien Williamson, Jahcobi Neath and Jalen Johnson the latter two both played sparingly. Williamson had eight points off the bench.

"Ball movers versus ball stoppers," Forbes said of the change. "I want the ball to move, and then the shot will find itself. Okay, we haven't I mean, motion is a hard thing to run. We have had no time. And so I'm trying to orchestrate it the best I can by giving them rules and some roles to play. And I just felt like the guys that we started were the guys that would really move the ball and defend. And I think they did you know now you know-how about Daivien in his did an unbelievable job of coming off the bench."

Wake Forest heads down the road to Durham on Saturday to face another top 25 team in Duke. Forbes joked that he was really excited to make his debut in Cameron without the Crazies or any fans.