Myles Colvin’s 3-pointer lifts Deacons at buzzer
Wake Forest has been running “Valpo” since before it had a transfer from Valparaiso on the roster.
That was the call for Myles Colvin’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave the Deacons a 69-68 comeback win over Memphis in the third-place game of the Baha Mar Championship on Friday night.
Trailing by two, Wake Forest (4-2) put in freshman Isaac Carr to in-bound the ball with 1.5 seconds left. He threw it from the baseline to the opposite free-throw line, where Tre’Von Spillers caught it while falling backward and dished to Colvin for the 3-pointer.
It fell, setting off a wild celebration for a Deacons team that trailed by six with 1:51 left in the game.
“It is something that we work on a lot,” Steve Forbes said via news release. “We worked on it here the day before the game, just because the ceiling is so low and I was a little afraid. I wanted him to be used to throwing it if we needed it. So, I thought our team did a really good job executing late.”
It’s the same play Wake Forest ran a night earlier, trailing by four with less than a second remaining, against Texas Tech. That was also Carr to Spillers, but with Juke Harris hitting the 3-pointer that made it a one-point loss.
Spillers and Colvin also scored after Wake’s deficit hit 66-60. Sebastian Akins tied the game at 66-66 with 9 seconds left, and then Memphis took the lead with two free throws by Dug McDaniel.
Colvin’s game-winner gave him 19 points for the second straight night in The Bahamas. Spillers led the Deacons with a season-high 24 points, including his first two made 3s of the season. A night after recording the first double-double of his career, Harris had 10 points and 10 rebounds for his second one.
The ending was the reward for what was a slog of a game. The Deacons gave up a 16-0 run early and led for less than 4 minutes.
“We just stayed resilient the entire game. We didn’t have our A-game, and all that credit goes to Memphis,” Forbes said. “I thought their switching and length really bothered us on the perimeter. We just had a hard time getting in there, and when we did, we didn’t always make the right plays.
“But, we found a way to win.”
TIP-INS …
– Memphis (1-4) was led by McDaniel’s 24 points. He was 7-for-12 from the field, making 5 of 8 3-pointers. The senior point guard also had six assists and five rebounds.
– Wake’s Mekhi Mason had eight points and shot 2-for-10. But he was plus-20 in his 32 minutes. The senior guard had seven rebounds and four assists.
– This is Wake’s fifth buzzer-beating, game-winning shot under Forbes, who’s in his sixth season. The others have been by Isaiah Mucius (against Charlotte), Tyree Appleby (against Utah Valley), Andrew Carr (against Appalachian State) and Daivien Williamson (against Syracuse).
Appleby’s shot was also on the “Valpo” play call. That dates back to Bryce Drew’s game-winner for Valparaiso against Mississippi in the 1998 NCAA tournament.
