Well, that was a quite a way to come out of the week off—the Deacs were on fire from deep from the opening tip and used 17 3-pointers to blow out Queens 111-73. This was game was pretty much over at halftime,
so this is going to be a pretty quick recap.
The story of this game was Purdue transfer Myles Colvin. Starting for the second time in his short Wake Forest career, Colvin was perfect in the first half. That’s not an exaggeration—he was literally perfect. Colvin finished the first half with a career high 26 points and made every shot he took, finishing 8-8 from the field, 6-6 from beyond the arc, and 4-4 from the free throw line. He also added 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the opening frame. That would be an incredible stat line for an entire game, and Colvin pulled it off in just 20 minutes. His addition to the starting lineup has really paid dividends for Coach Forbes so far. Behind his huge 1st half, the Deacs went into the locker room up 18 at the break.
The second half started the same as the first ended—the Deacs making everything. In the first 3 minutes out of the break, Wake hit 3 3-pointers and a pair of free throws to push their lead up to 29 points, and the game was more or less out of reach. The Deacs made it until the 14:24 mark before they missed their first shot, and they finished the second half shooting an impressive 69% from the floor. Wake led by 30+ points for nearly the entire second half and got the biggest lead of the night right at the end of the game when Vincent Richiutti hit a 3-pointer to give Wake the win by 38 points. That 3 was Wakes 17th of the night, giving the Deacs the second most 3-pointers in a single game in the Steve Forbes era (18 vs Louisville on 1/20/24).
For the game, Wake shot 62% from the floor, made 17 of their 33 3-point attempts, outrebounded the Royals 33-19, and assisted on 23 of their 36 make baskets. You can’t really ask for a better performance. Colvin led the way after that big time first half with a game high 33 points on 11-13 shooting, and he finished 7-8 from beyond the arc. He wasn’t the only Deac who had a big game though—Omaha Biliew also finished with a career high, scoring 16 points and making 4 of his 6 3-pointers. Wake is going to need him to continue to play well as conference play approaches.
This was a perfect way to come out of exams to give Steve Forbes his 100th win as Wake Forest’s head coach. If the Deacs can somehow replicate that next weekend against a red-hot Vanderbilt team, they will have their signature non-conference win and be well on their way to the NCAA Tournament.
Go Deacs!
