Hurricanes Come Up With Ball, Victory
There for the taking.
Coach Dino Gaudio used the phrase last night to describe a rebound late in game against Miami, but he could have also been describing the game itself, a 67-66 setback that snapped Wake Forest’s seven-game winning streak and dropped the Deacons to 1-1 in ACC play going into Tuesday’s home game against Maryland.
My jurisdiction as the Wake Forest beat reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal ends just below Tallahassee, so I wasn’t at the game. Actually John Dell, a valued colleague and close friend, took the opportunity to cover the game while visiting his father in South Florida. I knew John would do the great job that he did, so I was all for it. Besides I’ve never seen an ACC game in Miami. I’ve seen games that counted in the ACC standings, but given the absolute dearth of atmosphere and electricity I’ve never seen what I consider a real ACC game at either Miami or Boston College. Hopefully Frank Haith will continue to build the program and one day I’ll head down to Coral Gables for the kind of wild, rollicking, steamy, cacophonous experience I’ve had so many times at Duke, Carolina, N.C. State, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Georgia Tech and even on a rare occasion, at Florida State.
The attendance last night was announced at 5,537. A bunch of people must have showed up late, because right before tipoff Stan and Dinger said on the ISP broadcast that there was next to nobody there.
The Deacons made their free throws (20 of 25) and turned the ball over just 10 times. But they also shot 36 percent from the floor while the Hurricanes shot 46 percent—the best by any opponent this season. As John wrote, ultimately it came down to an inability to control Dwayne Collins, the physical force who missed only three of 12 shots from the floor while clubbing Wake with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Other than JuJuan Johnson of Purdue, he’s the only big man to really punish the Deacons this season.
Even with all that, the game was there for the taking when Collins missed a shot with 30 seconds left, and the Deacons clinging to a 66-65 lead. Chas McFarland, Ari Stewart and Al-Farouq Aminu where all in the lane, but it was 6-4 guard James Dews who came up with the rebound and laid in what proved to be the game-winner.
Wake had three shots to retake the lead, but Gary Clark missed a 3-point attempt, Ish Smith missed a driving basket in the lane (Gaudio said Smith actually had the ball slapped on his shot, causing him to bobble the ball before shooting) and L.D. Williams couldn’t get a tip to fall.
The Deacons flew commercial for the only time this season. Gaudio said the wakeup call was set for 5 a.m. this morning, so the team could get back to begin preparing for Tuesday night’s game with Maryland. The Terps have it even tougher, with only one day to prepare/travel after tonight’s home game against Florida State at 5:30. Coach Gary Williams, who has long beefed about what he considers the inherent advantages enjoyed by the ACC’s teams based in North Carolina (“We’re up here in Alaska,’’ he once quipped famously) was, as of Saturday, grousing once again.
“No other team in the ACC starts that way—with two games in three days,’’ Williams told Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun. “The thing you want is a level playing field.’‘
The thing that Dino wants, on the other hand, is someone who wants the ball worse than the other team when the game’s on the line. I’m just guessing that rebounding will be point of emphasis in the practices leading up to Tuesday night’s game.