For the third time in six games Wake Forest is held scoreless in the final four plus minutes to lose a game that it led late.
For what feels like the 100th time this season, Wake Forest (8-10, 1-45) held a late lead before collapsing under the pressure of holding onto that lead, this time on the road to N.C. State (13-6, 3-3) in a 72-63 loss.
After taking a 63-61 lead on a Doral Moore dunk with 4:30 left, N.C. State finished the game on an 11-0 run to send the Deacs to its fourth straight loss, with a daunting schedule ahead.
For much of the game it was a battle of inside threats, with Doral Moore of Wake Forest and Omer Yurtseven exchanging blows on the offensive side of things. Moore finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks, while Yurtseven finished with 22 points, 8 rebounds and a block.
It was really a battle of attrition more than anything between the two teams, as they somehow managed to combine to shoot 11-43 from behind the three-point line on the game.
The Deacs led 38-33 at the half, mostly due to a 15-0 run midway through the first half that saw a 26-17 deficit turn into a 31-26 lead. That run spanned nearly five minutes from the 9 minute to the 4 minute mark.
After Torin Dorn tied the game at 63 with a free throw at the 2:11 mark the Wolfpack called a timeout. Wake then inbounded it, but inexplicably failed to get the ball over midcourt within the required 10 seconds, resulting in a haunting turnover, especially with so many guards on the floor.
From there Markell Johnson made a mid-range jumper to take a 65-63 lead that the Pack would not relinquish again.
We have seen this act multiple times this year when it comes to completely collapsing down the stretch. It happened at Tennessee, it happened at North Carolina, it happened in the first half against Duke, it happened in the season opening loss to Georgia Southern, it happened in a blown lead against Drake, and it will probably happen again at some point in the season.
For some reason it has become a trademark throughout Danny Manning’s four year career to not be able to hold onto late leads. This can be chalked up to mere coincidence and bad “luck” sample size, or perhaps it can be attributed to something more tangible that ties those four years together.
Freshman Olivier Sarr saw the most action that he has in his brief collegiate career, scoring 9 points and pulling down 6 rebounds. While he was effective at times, particularly getting up and down the court for easy baskets, he had a couple of costly fouls that pull N.C. State on the line, two big missed free throws, and an extremely careless turnover on an attempted inside bounce pass to Doral Moore. These are all freshman mistakes that will be remedied with time, but still sting thinking about their impact on the game.
Bryant Crawford had a very good game overall for the Deacs, scoring 18 points (on 18 shots), with 5 assists. 5 steals, 2 rebounds, and no turnovers. He did go 0-6 from the three-point line which was not helpful, but as a whole his game was pretty decent.
Torin Dorn, Braxton Beverly, and Markell Johnson all went into double figures for the Wolfpack, with 11, 10 and 13 respectively.
The mystery surrounding the playing time of Chaundee Brown continued tonight, as he saw very little time on the court tonight, and did not come back into the game after the 18 minute mark of the second half.
There has to be something going on behind the scenes, because on a team that lacks a true wing presence there is no excuse for him to be riding the bench for stretches this long.
It was clear that Wake Forest made a conscientious effort to get the ball inside to Moore early on, especially Bryant Crawford, who fed him the first couple of times down the court. Overall this was probably Moore’s best game when you consider both sides of the court and hopefully this will continue on throughout the season.
