Wake Forest at UNC: Live Game Thoughts
Final - That's all she wrote, folks. It certainly wasn't pretty and Wake definitely didn't deserve to win. I guess that's how it goes sometimes, particularly on the road at Carolina. We'll talk about this one a bit over the next 24 hours, but the most important thing right now is focusing on Thursday's game against Maryland. At this point that one is much more important than this loss.
Final Score - Wake 73 UNC 89
3:59 - This one is comfortably out of hand. There isn't much left to say at this point. Carolina has beat up on Wake for the entire half and that's pretty much all there is to it. I know some will want to blame the refs but the refs did not create this 20 point lead, Carolina did.
I'd still like to see the lead close a little bit so that the game doesn't look quite as terrible, but this one is in the books.
Wake 65 UNC 84
7:58 - This one's falling apart, and the appears to be very little left that can revive it. Is there a way to take away a couple of Chas's fouls? No? Dangit. I guess we're screwed then.
At this point I'd just love to see Wake close down the lead a little bit and make it more respectable.
Wake trails 61-76.
11:23 - Things haven't gotten enough better. Wake is making some good plays and scoring some points, but defensively doesn't seem to have any idea how to slow down Carolina. Not having Chas in the middle is a big part of that.
I don't have a lot of confidence at this point. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm not expecting anything huge to happen here.
Wake 57 UNC 69 with Johnson going to the line (but I would have rather him just scored than drawing a foul)
2nd Half - 15:57 - It's pretty simple at this point: Wake isn't shooting well while Carolina is. Chas has gotten his 4th foul and is out for awhile. Without some defensive stops and an offensive run this one won't last much longer.
It's frustrating to see Wake struggling like this, but I'm not ready to give up yet. If Wake can work and keep it in single digits they'll continue to have a chance of making something happen.
Wake 49 UNC 61
Halftime - A somewhat frustrating finish to the half with Carolina going on an 8-0 run and jumping out to a 10 point lead and then hitting a 3 on what was clearly a travel to finish up nine at 41-40.
Wake isn't out of the game and didn't played a terrible half. What was frustrating was the way they let things slip away towards the end. Wake never let the lead get past about 5 and stay there until the last couple minutes of the half.
Jamie Skeen played a solid half and Chas played very well except for his foul trouble. No one else was particularly impressive, and everyone's freethrow struggles were quite annoying. Someone else will need to step up big in the 2nd half (I'm thinking primarily about one or more of the freshman) for Wake to jump back in this one.
It isn't time to write this one off, but Wake's got to find some sort of answer in the second half. For now they trail 41-50.
3:56 - Fouls and foul shots are definitely Wake's downfalls at the moment. Chas was doing pretty well with only 1 foul before picking up 2 quick dumb fouls. The lose ball rebounding foul was just a stupid decision by Chas. The 3rd foul may not have been a great call, but Chas is going to get called for those because of his reputation.
The other key stat is that Wake is only 1-5 from the FT line. Make those shots and this game is tied right now. Still, I love the resiliency of this team to respond to every run by Carolina with a run of their own, even if they haven't been able to grab a lead. Currently trailing 35-39.
7:49 - That stretch included a rough patch, but on the strength of Jamie Skeen Wake's climbed right back in and is only 2 points back of Carolina, 28-30. Also somewhat amazing is that Tyler Hansborough just got called for an offensive foul. Certainly there will be calls throughout the game that seem somewhat questionable, but for now I think the game is being called pretty fairly.
I love how there always seems to be someone who steps up for this team when it's really needed. I don't think anyone expected Jamie Skeen to step up the way he has so far, but at the same time Jeff Teague has been somewhat quite. The production always seems to come from somewhere.
Wake just needs to keep slugging it out. Sticking around in this game gives Wake a pretty good chance.
11:51 - The last 4 minutes were played a frenetic pace, but the scoring slowed down. I think it's good for Wake to be running, but for stretches there everything seemed out of control. Out of Control and running are not the same thing. Forced shots aren't good.
Teague's 3-pointer from at least 30 feet away was ridiculous. It was one of those shots where you're going to be really mad at the guy for shooting it, unless he makes it. Thankfully he did.
Wake also did a much better job avoiding fouls during that stretch, and Ish is headed to the line to shoot two with Wake trailing 21-18.
15:51 - I think Wake fans can take a deep breath now. It hasn't been a perfect start, but it's clear that Wake isn't going to roll over for Carolina in this one. I think the most obvious concern so far is the fouling. LD has 2 and a bunch of others have 1, so Wake will have to be careful with those.
Offense has been pretty solid. Chas has done well underneath and the Deacs have even hit a few big shots. They didn't show a replay, but in my opinion James didn't deserve the charge that was called on him.
About 4 minutes in UNC leads 14-12.
Tipoff - Looked like we were about to miss the start on TV with the NC State/Virginia game, but we've just made it in time for the tip and I'm plenty excited. This is another big one, so let's get it done.
First, I apologize for basically disappearing this weekend. Things got a bit busy and although I could have talked some baseball and basketball, it didn't quite work out that way.
For what it's worth (and if you didn't already know), in yesterday's baseball doubleheader Wake lost the first game to Pepperdine 3-2 and won the second game 13-9.
As far as tonight's basketball game, I'm pretty excited. Disappointed that I wasn't able to work it out to be there, but excited for the game. I think the line for the game is a bit high, with Carolina being favored by 15.5 points. The word is that Lawson won't play, so I believe Carolina is definitely still vulnerable.
I'll be back with more as we get closer to game time. Hopefully Wake fans have an enjoyable evening.
