Wake Forest at Florida State: A Road Breakthrough

With L.D. Williams back in the lineup after a three week absence from an injury to his right hand, Wake Forest rolled to their first ACC road victory of the season, beating Florida State 78-70. With the win Wake moves back to 5-5 in conference play and is once again in the thick of the ACC battle.

For the second straight game Wake scored the first basket and never lost the lead, but that doesn't mean they didn't try. After leading by as much as 21 in the first half and holding a 42-26 lead at halftime Wake went into one of its patented 2nd half stumbles and FSU hit some shots to cut the lead all the way down to four. Thankfully Wake held on and got themselves back together, briefly taking the lead back to double digits before eventually winning by eight.

First of all, it was great to see LD Williams back in the lineup tonight. He contributed 10 points and 4 rebounds, but LD is and always has been more than just numbers. Although he probably isn't quite 100% yet, just having him on the floor seemed like a confidence boost for the rest of the team.

Chas McFarland turned in his first career double double with 17 points and 10 boards as well as 3 blocks. He also played great defense and even got FSU's Ryan Reid ejected in the first half by annoying him enough to get punched in the chest. Wake would not have had the kind of night they did without Chas's presence in the middle of the floor.

Jeff Teague scored a team high 18 points and also had 6 assists to lead Wake's back court. Ishmael Smith was surprisingly quiet, and after playing well against Virginia James Johnson managed to disappear again tonight.

Last but certainly not least is Gary Clark. What an asset he has turned into these last three games. He has taken full advantage of the playing time he's had in LD's absence and tonight scored a career high 13 points on 5-7 shooting and 3-5 beyond the arc. I'm glad he's stuck with it and is now contributing very valuable minutes off the bench. Raycom even named him Wake's most valuable player for the game on the broadcast, so congrats to Gary.

For the first time I can remember in 2007-2008 ACC play Wake actually shot well on the road. They shot 56% overall and an incredible 62% from beyond the arc. That's more than we could ever hope for but certainly something no one will be complaining about. If Wake will keep shooting anywhere close to those numbers and cut down on the 20 turnovers they committed tonight they may actually be able to threaten Duke or Carolina in these next two games.

The other thing I noticed tonight was the effectiveness of Wake's zone defense. By my estimation they were in a zone for about half the game and it really seemed to cause FSU problems. When FSU went on their run in the 2nd half they did it on the back of Jason Rich who was having a lot of success penetrating and getting to the basket. When Wake switched from man to the 2-3 zone Rich was no longer able to get to the basket and the Deacs ended the run and shortly regained a significant lead. It was a great move by Gaudio and I'll be curious to see if he begins to utilize the zone more in future games, as this is already the second or third game in a row where it has seen considerable use.

Like me, I doubt anyone was surprised when FSU went on their run in the second half. Wake's had a way of allowing things like that all season, but the good thing about tonight was that there was enough of a lead to weather the storm a bit before Dino made the tactical adjustment on defense necessary to stop the bleeding. FSU's run also coincided with a streak of turnovers for the Deacs which have also been consistently problematic this season. Wake won't be able to get away with 20 turnovers, and particularly 12 in the second half, against Duke on Sunday.

Hopefully getting this first road win will provide some momentum for Sunday's game. The team is shooting very well, seems to be learning how to make necessary adjustments, and will definitely be very excited to face Duke in the Joel. There should be plenty of fan support and I think it will be a fun game. I'm definitely not bold enough to predict a win, but I think Wake has shown enough recently that I anticipate a respectable performance.

I hope all of you that are able are going to try to make it out to the Joel on Sunday. I know there are still Wake Forest tickets available for every remaining game and with a couple more wins maybe we can even start thinking March Madness. Don't you love how optimistic a good win can make you feel?

Big big win. If Wake can figure out how to keep up this kind of performance on the road they could go a long way.