Wake Forest fades late, falls at UNC

CHAPEL HILL – It was right there; a third straight ACC win, the first win in Chapel Hill since Dino Gaudio was Wake Forest’s coach, a step forward in the ACC standings on a week with plenty of wreckage already.

And then it wasn’t.

“The last 10 minutes, when it was game time, I thought they turned it up defensively and we didn’t,” coach Steve Forbes said after Wake Forest’s 88-79 loss to North Carolina on Wednesday night at the Smith Center.

Indeed, there wasn’t much separation between these Big Four rivals in the first 30 minutes. UNC (10-5, 2-2 ACC) led by seven in the first half; Wake Forest (10-5, 2-2) led at halftime and led by as much as six after the first few minutes of the second half.

There were 20 lead changes; 15 of those came in the second half. Wake Forest hasn't won at UNC since 2010.

But after Tyree Appleby made two free throws to give Wake Forest a 64-63 lead with 10:17 left — what turned out to be Wake’s last lead — UNC scored on 9 of 10 possessions, putting the Tar Heels up 84-75 and allowing them to cruise into the nine-point win.

“I thought early on, they came out and kind of ran the same thing over and over, nothing really different,” Forbes said of how UNC started the second half. “We just didn’t defend it like we did in the first half, at the pick-and-roll.”

That late, decisive scoring burst was the second costly one of the second half; UNC came out of halftime with 13 points on its first six possessions, nine of those points coming on the hot hand of RJ Davis. The junior guard had 22 of his season-high 27 points in the second half.

“The first half, you just have to get a feel for the game,” Davis told Deacons Illustrated. “Picking and choosing your spots, just to see what the defense is giving you. And kind of just get everybody involved.

“Coming into the second half, I just realized I’ve gotta step up and be the big-time player I know I could be.”

UNC shot 60% (18-for-30) in the second half, and that was in spite of missing four of its last five shots. The Tar Heels had eight turnovers in the first half and their only turnover in the second half came with eight seconds left and the outcome wrapped up.

Wake Forest succeeded in turning this game into a gritty-grimey-tough-together display in the first half; the second half — particularly the last 10 minutes — was too much of a departure from that.

“I thought the last 10 minutes, they turned up the intensity on defense and got way more aggressive,” Forbes said. “I thought that rattled us. I thought we caved to the pressure of their intensity on defense.”

Wake Forest had eight turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the first half, and then didn’t commit a turnover for the rest of the half. That helped the Deacons into a one-point lead at halftime.

The Deacons had two turnovers in the first 11 minutes of the second half, and then committed five more in the closing stretch. Those five turnovers led directly to 12 points, all of which came on fast breaks.

Damari Monsanto led Wake Forest with 17 points, along with seven rebounds. Andrew Carr and Appleby scored 16 points apiece, with Carr leading the Deacons in rebounds (nine) and Appleby leading in assists (nine).

An unlikely offensive performance from Leaky Black was a thorn in Wake’s side. He had 18 points, a career-high for the fifth-year wing. Fourteen of those came in the first half, which included a 3-for-4 start on 3s.

Black entered the game having made 3 of 11 3-pointers in UNC’s last seven games.

“A credit to him,” Forbes said of Black. “We play him as a driver. He made a couple, and then we started flying out there and he started driving around us. … Leaky’s improved a lot offensively since I’ve been in the league.”

Black hit all three of his 3s in the first seven minutes of the game.

“It was definitely shots that I normally get,” Black said. “I just never really took them. Some of those shots, I just never took them, I would pass up. But I’m just trying to be more aggressive.”

Wake Forest players were not made available for comment after the game, as has been the case after previous road losses against Clemson and Rutgers, and the neutral-site game against LSU.

The game was delayed for about 10 minutes in the second half when a fan in the lower level of the Smith Center required medical attention. The delay occurred with 11:15 left in the game and UNC holding a 61-60 lead. The fan exited the arena in a wheelchair.