SMU outpaces Wake Forest, dealing Deacons home loss
WINSTON-SALEM – Wake Forest pieced together intermittent offensive success in the second half of Tuesday night’s game against SMU.
The problem was twofold — the Deacons started the half with a nine-point deficit and couldn’t get enough defensive stops to make up ground.
SMU won 91-79 at Wake Forest at Joel Coliseum.
The Mustangs (14-5, 3-3 ACC) made 14 3-pointers and weren’t slowed down in either half. They led for the entire second half.
The closest Wake Forest (11-8, 2-4) got in the second half was four, at 50-46 with about 16½ minutes left. SMU followed that up with a 10-0 run.
In that span for the Deacons, Cooper Schwieger committed two turnovers, Juke Harris missed a 3-pointer and Myles Colvin missed a 3.
Harris led Wake Forest with 27 points. Colvin and Tre’Von Spillers scored 17 apiece; no other Deacon had more than four points.
Boopie Miller scored 12 points and had six assists in his return to Winston-Salem. SMU was paced by B.J. Edwards’ 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting; he also had eight rebounds and seven assists.
Neither team wasted much time settling into an offensive groove. SMU’s lead was 13-12 at the first media timeout.
The Deacons made their first two 3-pointers of the game and went 1-for-14 in the rest of the first half. They turned SMU over nine times in the first half and turned those into eight points. Four of those turnovers were of the live-ball variety, and Wake Forest only got two runout dunks off of them.
The Mustangs led for most of the first half. But it wasn’t until the last couple of minutes where any separation occurred. Coach Andy Enfield took a timeout with two minutes left after Sebastian Akins had a steal and dunk, cutting the score to 40-36.
SMU scored the last five points of the first half and led by nine at the break. Wake Forest played the last 3½ minutes of the first half without point guard Nate Calmese after he went down with a left ankle injury. He returned to start the second half.
