Wake Forest 80, Virginia 64

This afternoon Wake Forest ended their two game losing skid and moved back to 4-5 in ACC play. With solid 48% shooting and much-improved defense Wake defeated Virginia 80-64. It may not have always been the prettiest game for either team or the refs, but after tonight nothing but the win will matter.

It wasn’t quite as easy as the score indicates. With 4 minutes remaining Cavalier star Sean Singletary made a layup to cut the lead to three at 67-64. After an Ish layup Dino called a quick timeout.

Coming out of that timeout Wake ran a zone defense and all of a sudden Singletary couldn’t make his way to the basket quite so easily. Virginia didn’t score again, going 0-10 from the field, and Wake pulled away to a 16 point victory.

Even though the Deacs haven’t practiced a zone defense much all season long Dino decided it was necessary. The gamble, as it were, paid off.

I know Dino has taken some criticism as of late for some of his in-game decisions, but I doubt anyone will have any such complaints today. He did a good job calling timeouts when UVA went on runs and made the strategic adjustments necessary to fix problems (the switch to zone being the most notable example).

Ish continued to lead the team as fans have come to expect this season, always having an answer when Virginia was threatening. “I bounced back and had a big second half because I know the guys are expecting me to make plays,” said Smith. “That’s my job on the team – set people up and when we need to score, score.”

For the second straight home game the refs seemed to be making some pretty terrible calls against Wake. The guys found a way to play through it, but you don’t expect to struggle with the refs in your own building. The crowd was also pretty strong today, providing plenty of noise and some pretty clever (if not always entirely appropriate) signs. There wasn't quite as much noise in the second half, but the game was moving so slowly that it seemed to take the energy out of both players and fans.

Couple of quick notes on the game: Chas McFarland played limited minutes today (only about 20) because he had been sick yesterday. He didn’t go to class and was too sick to really practice, but he felt well enough today to go ahead and play. He contributed nicely with 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. I’m definitely proud of his effort.

James Johnson bounced back after a couple of sub-par performances and had a pretty nice game. He was clearly working harder on the boards than the last couple games (he had 8), but also score 21 points and managed 3 blocks. I hope that type of performance is what we see regularly out of him the rest of the way through the ACC schedule.

Gary Clark saw significant playing time for the second straight game and once again had a decent performance. Not quite as solid as Wednesday’s game, but he still provided valuable minutes in the absence of LD Williams. “It feels good to be able to help the team out, do whatever we can do to when and bring some intensity,” said Clark.

Clark also provided one of the more impressive plays of the game, a baseline drive you don’t usually see from anyone other than Ish or Teague. “The shot clock was winding down and the lane was clear so I took the man to try to get fouled but I hit the layup. Luckily he jumped one way and I spun the other.” It was a nice play and it was good to see Clark show some skills other than his shot.

Now it’s time for the Deacs to take this show back on the road. They play at Florida State on Thursday night, and it will be a very important game as Wake definitely needs to get back to .500 before facing Duke and UNC. Dino says he hopes LD will be able to play Thursday, but it sounds like he'll be back for the Duke game at the very latest.