Thursday night at the Triad Pro-Am was not the best night for the Demon Deacon basketball team. While overall the level of play was not very high, there were a couple bright spots.
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The first game of the night featured J.T. Terrell, L.D. Williams, Tony Woods and Chas McFarland against Tony Chennault and Ty Walker. While McFarland scored the first couple buckets for his team, it was Chennault who quickly stole the show for the half. On a number of long range shots, drives and free throws, Chennault had 20 at the end of the first half and his team was up by double digits. While many guards try to avoid contact, Chennault actively seeks it as he gets into the lane. He is certainly a tough customer and gives it his all every time he steps on the floor. Unfortunately, he could not keep it going in the second half as most of his shots rimmed out. He ended the night with 25 points.
The other Wake Forest freshman in this game was J.T. Terrell, who scored 47 on Monday. Tonight, however, was a different story as he was a bit off all night. He knocked down a couple of treys and had two acrobatic finishes in the lane to finish with 10 points.
Tony Woods and Ty Walker battled all night on both ends of the floor. While Ty managed to collect several blocks, Woods got his revenge on a couple monstrous slams (and subsequent yells) over Walker. Woods also finished with 10 points while Walker had 6.
L.D. Williams and the other guard on his team managed to complete the comeback and pull their team even with about 5 minutes left in the game. WIlliams, who had several huge dunks, finished with 23 and the game winning free throw with 2 seconds left. His team remains undefeated in the league thus far.
While I did not attend the Stewart, Tabb and Mescheriakov game in the other gym, we heard it was quite ugly. The three had 11, 9 and 8, respectively, in a 62-47 loss. Stewart was ejected with 9 minutes left in the second half after a flagrant foul.
The only Deacon playing in the second game was Travis McKie. While his team was losing by around double digits for most of the game, he did the dirty work under the basket and ended up with 29 points. McKie has a knack for finding the loose ball under the basket and usually converts. Of the 29 points, all but one 3-pointer came in the paint or from free throws. Wake fans will be pleased to know that Travis seems to be an excellent free throw shooter.
The final game of the night was also a mismatch as the defending champions ran away with another victory behind the play of the Holcomb-Faye brothers, Reyshawn Terry (UNC) and David Weaver. While the game was not close in the end, the play of Carson Desrosiers was certainly encouraging. With Weaver guarding him he picked up his play in the second half when his teammates started to feed him in the post. Desrosiers scored on a soft baby hook, a fadeaway baseline jumper and a couple dunks in a short time span. He also knocked down a three to start the game. Desrosiers had 13 when we left with about six minutes left in the second half. As we have already wrote a few times, he has good hands, a good basketball IQ and a very soft touch. Desrosiers gives new assistant coach Mark Pope plenty to work with and should be a valuable asset over the next few years.
As always, check back next week as the Triad Pro-Am continues!