What a finish! Wake managed to pull off the improbable buzzer beating 3-point shot with 1 second on the clock—for the second night in a row! The Deacs ran the exact same play they ran last night against Texas Tech and got the exact same result, only this time, the shot actually mattered. Down by 2 with 1.5 seconds remaining, Isaac Carr launched the ball to Tre’Von Spillers, who found Colvin in the corner to win it at the horn for Wake.
That shot saved the Deacs from a loss in what was overall a pretty sloppy game from Wake. The Deacs shot 38% from the floor, 29% from beyond the arc, turned the ball over 14 times, and had several stretches where they went multiple minutes without scoring a basket. It is nice to be on the other side of the 1-point game after the past couple of weeks, but the outlook of this game is wildly different if that shot doesn’t go in.
Wake got off to yet another slow start in this one. Juke Harris gave the Deacs a quick 6-3 lead with 5 points in the first 3 minutes, and then Wake just forgot to score for over 6 minutes of game time. That allowed the Tigers to go on a 16-0 run behind some hot 3-point shooting from Dug McDaniel, and once again the Deacs were behind double digits in the first half. At this point, Forbes probably needs to consider switching up the starting lineup, because the Deacs continue to start every game in a double-digit hole. Wake eventually caught up after back-to-back 3-pointers from Tre’Von Spillers got them going. The trio of Spillers, Myles Colvin, and Juke Harris led the way in the first half with 7 points apiece. The Deacs went into the half down 33-27, largely due to Memphis shooting 7-15 (47%) from beyond the arc in the half–the Tigers entered the game shooting below 30% from 3 on the season.
The second half didn’t get much better, with both teams shooting under 50% from the floor and 30% from beyond the arc. Last game it was Juke Harris and Myles Colvin carrying the Deacs in the 2nd half, tonight it was Spillers and Colvin. Spillers scored 17 of his game-high 24 points in the 2nd on 6-9 shooting and added 5 rebounds, while Colvin added 12 points.
In the 2nd half alone, Spillers and Colvin combined for 29 of Wake’s 42 points on a combined 11-16 (69%) shooting—the rest of the team combined scored just 13 points on 4-17 shooting from the field (24%). Colvin seems to be turning into a consistent clutch player in the 2nd halves of games, and he could become the closer Wake has been missing so far this season.
Trailing by 6 with under 2 minutes remaining, the Deacs were in danger of losing what could have been a resume killer to a Memphis team that has been trending downwards since the first game of the season. Wake didn’t play great tonight, but you have to give the team credit for not giving up and fighting back just to be in the position for the buzzer beater to matter. Heading back to Winston 1-1 feels a heck of a lot better than returning with a goose egg. We can worry about the metrics later—for now, just winning a close game is a victory.
Go Deacs!
