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The Wake Forest Demon Deacons fell on Tuesday night to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish by a score 59-78. With the loss, Wake Forest moves to 5-8 overall and 2-8 in the ACC. I’ll be brief, because that was not fun.
The Deacs started off a little slow in the first half, scoring just 11 points in the first 12 minutes of the game. They did a great job battling back and finished the half shooting 6-8 from the field. Wake headed into halftime trailing the Irish by just 3 points, 32-35. Unfortunately, basketball has 2 halves, and pretty much nothing good happened for Wake Forest in the final 20 minutes of action.
A combination of good shooting and poor defense allowed Notre Dame to start the 2nd half on a 16-0 run, giving Notre Dame a 51-32 lead, and the Deacs never really got it any closer. Wake Forest struggled to put the ball in the basket and finally scored their first points of the period on an Ody Oguama layup over 5 minutes into the half. The Deacs scored just 26 points in 2nd half on 29% shooting, while the Irish scored 44 2nd half points on 58% shooting and 60% shooting from downtown. As I said, not fun.
Juwan Durham led all players with 18 points and added 9 rebounds and 4 blocks for the Irish. Cormac Ryan was exceptional off the bench for the ND; he scored 13 points on 5-9 shooting and added 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.
For the Deacs, Isaiah Mucius led the way with 14 points and 5 rebounds on 5-11 shooting. Ody Oguama added a season high 13 points and 6 rebounds. If you’re looking for a bright spot, Wake Forest only turned the ball over 6 times, which would be something to celebrate if not for the final score.
I don’t really have much else to say. A really bad half led to a blow out loss on the road in the ACC. Wake is not the first team that has happened to, nor will they be the last. The important thing is to learn from it, improve on it, and move on to the next game. The Deacs have plenty of time for said learning and improving, as they do not play again until they face Boston College on February 10th.