Wake Forest vs. Georgia Tech: Live Thoughts
Final - Wake loses, 83-89. Ugly last few minutes cost it
0:29 - Teague tried alley-oop Johnson under the basket and it was deflected for a turnover. Wake now has to foul and after the freethrows trails 88-83. Not good. Wake can't hit a shot and this one is just about over.
1:10 - 2 FTs for Teague, GT calls time out with Wake trailing 83-84.
1:21 - GT hits a three, foul on GT but they have one to give. Chas hits the ground after the play but nothing is called. Wake ball down 3, 84-81.
2:05 - By hitting the offensive glass the Deacs have come up with quite a few second chance points tonight, most importantly the 2 Weaver just got off of a Chas McFarland miss followed by a Harvey Hale miss to tie the game at 81. Most amazing right now is that Wake is shooting almost 60% this half and GT is shooting 57%. It has turned this into a very high scoring game.
4:29 - Big 3-pointer by Harvey, and the Deacs switch to what looks like a Triangle & Two defense, causing a turnover. Momentum looks to be shifting back, Wake leads 79-77
6:01 - Harvey Hale was just called for a charge, but it certainly didn't look like one to me. Media Timeout, Deacs still trail 74-75.
6:23 - Harvey Hale knows how to shoot when he plays Georgia Tech, that's for sure. The Deacs are trailing right now, but not by much. With Georgia Tech shooting almost 65% from the field in the 2nd half, they're making themselves difficult to keep up with, and Wake's foul trouble is not helping matters. GT's lead is only one, 75-74.
8:29 - Johnson just picked up another foul. Not good, and he's out.
9:42 - The ugliness only got worse, and except for a basket by Jamie Skeen Wake hasn't been able to come up with much of anything. The poor shooting has returned and the Deacs seem to be missing defensive assignments and giving up easy buckets. As a result, Wake trails 66-64.
11:25 - Impressive run by Georgia Tech to cut into the lead. Wake turned the ball over several times and GT was hitting their shots. It's been sloppy all night, but it has gotten a bit worse. Some of the dumb fouls and mental mistakes have returned. A 7-0 run has cut the lead all the way down to 62-61. Deacs take a timeout to regroup; something needs to change.
15:57 - Nice run for the Deacs, including 3-pointers from both Harvey Hale and Chas McFarland. Wake's doing a little bit better making smart plays and avoiding dumb fouls, although Weaver's charge wasn't great. Regardless, the Deacs have built a bit bigger lead, 55-44.
2nd Half: 18:00 - Quick 3rd foul on Jeff Teague could cause some problems, he'll be pretty worthless on defense for awhile. I wouldn't be opposed to putting Clark back in there for a few minutes to buy some time. Deacs lead 47-42.
Halftime - Other than a handful of very sloppy plays and some unnecessary fouls it was a pretty strong half for Wake. The scoring was very well distributed, with Teague being the only Deacon in double figures. Gary Clark has had about 8 minutes of playing time and has 8 points, which is nice to see. I"ll be interested to hear what Dino has to say about him after the game.
With a little more of the same it could turn out to be a great win for the Deacs.
1:27 - HUGE dunk by Teague on a fast break off a steal.
1:45 - Clark is now 2-2 from beyond the arc and made both of his freethrows, but he's clearly nervous because he's having trouble holding on to the ball and has 2 turnovers. Timeout, GT. Wake leads 41-32. Causey is absolutely fuming on the bench.
3:57- GT's closed the lead with some pretty good shooting, and in my opinion some help from the refs to get to the line. The crowd is getting pretty ugly towards the Jackets, primarily Causey after the intentional foul and then Aminu, thanks to his brother. Clark is seeing some significant minutes here tonight and is headed to the line after the timeout with the Deacs leading 34-30.
7:47 - Things have gotten ugly out here, and after that intentional foul/technical situation I think things will be getting pretty chippy. Wake needs to keep avoiding fouls and concentrate on smart offensive play. Wake holds onto a five point lead (and the ball) 23-18.
9:14 - Teague just did one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. GT's Matt Causey was called for an intentional foul on James Johnson and Teague got in his face and basically threatened him. There is an intentional foul on Causey, but Teague picked up a technical for his antics. Very Very dumb. Johnson will shoot the intentional foul (of which he misses both) and Tech now shoots a technical 2 shot foul, makes both, and gets the ball. Really dumb series there, mostly due to Teague. Wake leads 23-16.
11:24 - The Deacs are hot from beyond the arc! Both Harvey Hale and Jeff Teague have hit a couple of big ones. Gary Clark is also seeing floor time for the first time in awhile and hit a 3 of his own with his first shot. Hale got his second foul on a really stupid play defending an inbounds pass in the backcourt. Already Wake has 7 team fouls and Georgia Tech is in the bonus. Won't be very helpful the rest of the half. Things got a little sloppy in the last minute, with two straight turnovers. Still, Wake leads 20-12.
15:28 - Sloppiness all over the made for a very bad start. Lazy passes and other seemingly mental mistakes are not going to do us any good. A couple of quick fouls aren't going to help much either. Definitely looked like the refs missed a goaltending call which cost the Deacs a couple of points, too. Thankfully, things started falling and Wake has built a small early lead thanks in large part to a Jeff Teague 3-pointer. Wake leads 9-3.
Getting ready for tip-off, time to extend the home streak to 17! Check back throughout the game for updates, and if you're interested to hear what Grobe said about the recruiting class today, scroll down to the previous post.
