The Deacs desperately needed to bounce back after losing to Oklahoma on their home court earlier this week, and bounce back they did. Behind 28 points from sophomore Juke Harris, Wake Forest defeated West Virginia by a score of 75-66 to pick up their 7th win of the season.
After the loss on Tuesday, head coach Steve Forbes decided it was time to change up the starting lineup, inserting Myles Colvin into Mekhi Mason’s spot. It didn’t really seem to impact
either player that much, but the Deacs jumped out to a quick lead and held it for most of the first half, so I’ll put it down as a success. A 7-0 run with about 10 minutes remaining in the half gave the Deacs a 9-point lead, and a 6-0 Wake Forest run a few minutes later would push the lead out to 12 points.
In what would be a common occurrence throughout the game, every time Wake went on a run and looked like they were about to blow the game wide open, WVU guard Honor Huff would bring the Mountaineers right back. Trailing by 10, Huff scored 9 points in a row in under 2 minutes to cut the lead right back down to 1 point.
Huff finished with 24 points and made 5 of his 17 3-point attempts. He is an incredibly streaky shooter, but once he heats up, he can make some truly ridiculous shots. Behind Huff’s 12 1st half points, WVU ended the half on a 17-7 run to tie the game at 34 at the break.
I don’t know what the team talked about at halftime, but it worked. Led by Juke Harris, the Deacs opened the half on a 15-4 run to grab an 11-point lead at the under 16-minute timeout. Harris scored 22 of his game-high 28 points in the 2nd half and made 5 of his 9 3-point attempts.
After taking command of the game with that run, the Deacs did a really good job of limiting the Mountaineers’ runs. It seemed like every time WVU had a little spurt and the crowd started to get back into the game, the Deacs would answer and push the lead back to 10 and silence the crowd. West Virginia did get it as close as 5 after a 9-3 run led by 8 more quick points from Huff, but the Deacs immediately responded with a 6-0 run over their own to push it right back to 11. That was the last time the Mountaineers were ever within striking distance, and Wake went on to win 75-66.
This was exactly what the Deacs needed after a poor performance against Oklahoma. Wake came out and played one of their best games of the season, shooting 51% from the floor, making 10 of their 25 3-point attempts (40%), and assisting on 18 of their 29 made baskets. The defense was also much better, holding WVU to 40% shooting from the floor and forcing 17 turnovers that were turned into 25 points for the Deacs. I was much more pleased with the team’s shot selection in this one, as the Deacs did a better job getting the ball into the paint and not settling for quick 3-pointers—Wake finished the game with 36 points in the paint and shot nearly 60% from inside the arc.
With 28 points, Juke Harris was obviously the MVP for the Deacs tonight. That being said, Nate Calmese had maybe his best game as a Deacs and was massive for Wake Forest tonight. Calmese finished with 4 points, 9 assists, and 4 steals while commanding the offense like a true floor general. When WVU cut the lead to 5 with just over 5 minutes remaining, it was Calmese who led the run to push it back to 13 with a putback off an offensive rebound, 2 assists to Tre’Von Spillers for layups, and an assist to Omaha Biliew for a dunk.
That stretch basically put the game out of reach and gave the Deacs the victory. If Calmese can continue to run the offense with that level of efficiency, Wake has the fire power and defensive ability to string together some big wins this season.
This was a very important win for the Deacs, because Wake has 2 buy games remaining on the schedule for exams before the schedule really ramps up. The Deacs have a final non-conference game against a Vanderbilt team that is currently 5th in the NET and then conference play starts with 7 of their first 10 games coming against teams that are top 50 in the NET. That is a crucial stretch with 6 Quad 1 games—with 0 Q1 wins and maybe no wins over tournament teams thus far, the Deacs are going to have to win some of those big games to boost their resume before March.
Go Deacs!
