Wake Summer League Playoff Recap - Round 1

The first night of playoff action at the Triad Pro-Am was not the best for Wake players, as four of them are finished for the summer after close losses.  Click through to see who survived day one.

In the first time slot I watched the first half of the game featuring Tony Woods and Gary Clark and the second half of the match-up featuring Konner Tucker and David Weaver.  Woods and Clark got out to an early lead and looked like they were going to coast to victory.  Woods scored the first two buckets of the contest, one on a baseline jumper and the other on a reverse lay-up.  He didn’t get many touches for the rest of the half, but did manage to block five shots and grab plenty of rebounds.  The only thing that lacked from his game tonight was making catches in traffic, as he missed a few opportunities to finish when he could not corral the ball.   He finished with eight points in the half.  Clark was 3 of 3 from beyond the arc in the half as his team was up by six at the break.  When we came back to see the results, their team was down by one with only 12 seconds left.  Clark had a chance to win the game, but slipped and traveled as he attempted a three (the shot somehow went in as he was falling down).

The game in the other gym was a back-and-forth contest as well.  In the second half Konner Tucker knocked down three three-pointers on around seven tries, including one with little time remaining to pull his team within one.  As time wound down, one of their teammates drained another three with two seconds left to send the game into overtime.  In OT, it was much of the same, but the team from Guilford College did not miss many free throws and knocked down big shots in the last two minutes.  They will move on to play Glasgow tomorrow night.

In the 8/9 game, Ish Smith and Ari Stewart fortunately kept the Deacs from getting swept.  Stewart played extremely well throughout the game and missed only one or two shots the entire night.  He connected on several tough threes and baseline jumpers as well as the usual dunk or three.  After seeing all of our guys play several games this month, it is safe to say that Stewart has made more threes and shot for a better percentage than any of the other Wake Forest players.  Smith made a couple trifectas on about six tries and took it strong to the basket on the break a couple times.  They held on to beat the pesky Mercedes Benz team and will face L.D. and Ty Walker’s team, the #1 seed, tomorrow.