Wake Forest survives Lancers' charge
WINSTON-SALEM — Wake Forest picked up a 71-68 win over Longwood at Joel Coliseum on Wednesday night.
The Deacons battled their way to their ninth of the season in what was a slugfest of a game. Wake’s offense couldn’t find a way to score consistently all night. They finished the matchup against the Lancers shooting 40.7% from the field and just 20.8% from 3-point range.
Juke Harris led the Deacons in scoring once again. He finished the game with 19 points (4-for-12 field goals), eight rebounds and two assists. Harris did not see a deep ball go down against the Lancers.
Wake Forest got out to a 9-2 run early in the second half and built a little bit of momentum from there. The Deacons held the Lancers to a roughly four-minute scoring drought, but just led by a single point around the 14:20 mark.
At the under-8 timeout in the second half, the Deacons found themselves leading by just seven points. The Deacons’ defense held on to another 4-plus minute stretch in which they did not allow a Lancers field goal.
The Deacons found themselves in a tie game, 65-65, as Harris stepped to the line for two shots with 1:24 to go.
Myles Colvin made a corner-3 with 49 seconds to go to give the Deacons a three-point lead. He finished the night with 11 points, three assists and five rebounds.
The Lancers had a shot to tie at the end with time ticking, but it came up just short as the Deacons squeaked out with a win.
The Deacons started the game with just 10 points (5-for-12 FG) in the game’s first seven minutes of play, with Nate Calemese starting the matchup two-of-two from deep with six points.
The Deacons let the Lancers hang around in the first half due to Wake’s inability to shoot from deep. At the under-8 timeout, the Deacons were just 4-for-13 from behind the arc, sitting at just 31%. The Deacons also had seven turnovers in the first half.
Harris tried to give the Deacons a spark in the first half, but after some empty possessions and just 2-6 from FG range in the half, the offense couldn’t find rhythm. He also tallied four turnovers in the twenty minutes of play.
Harris went to halftime as the Deacons’ leading scorer with eight points as he was 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
As a team, the Deacs ended the first half shooting just 33.3% from the floor and 22.2% from deep.
Trailing as the second half began, the Deacons made an emphasis to play a bit more aggressively on defense.
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