Wake Forest toppled by Virginia Tech
Wake Forest dropped a road game at Virginia Tech, 82-63, in which the Hokies were better on both ends of the floor.
“I just really thought Virginia Tech came ready to play today,” Deacons coach Steve Forbes said. “They played at a really high level on both offense and defense. They did a really great job of sharing the ball and cutting hard on offense, indicative of 19 assists and five turnovers.
“I think we turned them over 19 times in the game before, so they flipped the script there. I thought they were really physical on defense – forced us into shots that they were willing to give up. “Now, we got some open shots that we have to make on the road, but I thought, for the most part, their defense forced us to shoot on their terms.”
Wake Forest (14-13, 5-9 ACC) had no answer for the Hokies (18-10, 7-8) on the offensive end of the floor. The Hokies were led by Tobi Lawal and Nekolis Avdalas, who each had 17 points.
Center Amani Hansberry gave the Deacons some troubles as well in the paint and from deep. In 25 minutes, Hansberry was plus-26 and totaled 13 points (5-for-7), and was 50% from deep (2-for-4).
As a team, the Deacons shot 37.7% from the field (23-for-61) and just a brutal 20% from behind the arc (6-for-30).
The Deacons started out hot from deep and made their first four 3s. They went 2-for-26 the rest of the game.
Juke Harris wasn’t his usual self against the Hokies as he couldn’t find his groove, ending the game with 16 points (7-for-17), and just 2-for-10 from 3-point territory.
Despite the loss, the Deacons got some solid help from their frontcourt. Tre’Von Spillers had 12 points and seven rebounds, and Cooper Schwieger added 10 points of his own.
The Deacons also outscored the Hokies bench by five in the loss.
The Hokies pushed their lead to 16 with a little more than 10 minutes left in the game and the margin never got smaller for the Deacons.
The 19-point Hokies’ win was their largest ACC victory in two years, dating back to a 33-point win against Virginia on Feb. 19, 2024.
