Another loss at Cameron
For the 27th year in a row, the Deacs will be leaving Cameron Indoor Stadium with a loss. The 69-90 blowout at the hands of the Blue Devils marks the 2nd straight blowout loss for the Deacs, and moves Wake Forest to 11-9 overall and 2-5 in the conference.
Early on, it looked like the Deacs might be able to make a game out of this one—Wake hit their first 4 3-pointers of the game while Duke was ice cold from beyond the arc, missing their 11 or 12 shots from deep. Behind a couple of Tre’von Spillers 3s and 7 early points from Cooper Schwieger, Wake was able to build an 18-11 lead with about 10 minutes to go in the first half.
That was as good as things got for the Deacs, unfortunately. Duke responded quickly—the Blue Devils went on a blistering 31-13 run to end the half. Once Duke finally made a few 3-pointers, Wake was forced to stretch their defense out to the 3-point line a little more, and that allowed the Blue Devils to hammer the Deacs in the paint. Duke was just 3-16 from beyond the arc in the first half, but they went into the locker room with an 11 point lead because they outscored Wake 28-10 in the paint in the first 20 minutes. To me, it felt like once the Duke run got started, Wake got away from their offense and reverted back to launching the first available 3-pointer, regardless of how much time was remaining on the shot clock. That just made things worse.
Thing got worse for Wake in the 2nd half, as freshman phenom Cameron Boozer took over the game.
Boozer scored 22 of his game high 31 points in the 2nd on 7-9 shooting and was a perfect 2-2 from beyond the arc. The Deacs have struggled defensively down low all season, so I don’t think it was really too much of a surprise that Wake did not have an answer for one of the best big men in the nation. Behind Boozer, the Blue Devils finished the game with 48 points in the paint, 16 offensive rebounds, and 18 2nd chance points—it’s nearly impossible to beat that kind of dominance in the paint without making an absurd number of 3-pointers. Even with Wake shooting 8-14 from downtown in the 2nd half (57%), the Blue Devils lead got as high as 25 points.
This was the second straight game that Wake has been blown out of because of their inability to do anything in the paint on either side of the basket. I feel like I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but Wake just simply does not have the front court to compete in the ACC right now. Wake made 14 3-pointers on 44% shooting from beyond the arc, and they were never close to winning this game. That’s crazy. But when you look at the 48-16 point disparity in the paint and the 43-22 rebounding advantage, it becomes pretty clear why Duke ran away with this one. The Blue Devils scored over half of their points in the paint, and 36 of their 90 points (40%) came on layups. Wake finished the game 4-10 on layups.
The only saving grace for Wake right now is that the schedule was pretty heavily front loaded—among their final 11 games, 7 are outside of the top 50 in the NET. At 2-5 in the ACC, the Deacs are probably going to need to sweep those games for a chance to finish the season with a winning record in conference play. I know you guys are probably tired of me saying it, but losing at Duke really isn’t a season ender (we’ve done it 27 times in a row, after all). Wake still has 4 Q1 games remaining on the schedule, and, while it definitely looks unlikely with the way the team is playing right now, as long as there are multiple big games on the schedule, Wake still has a chance of climbing back onto the bubble. That being said, every Q1 loss makes the margin for error smaller and smaller, and at this point, Wake would probably have to win all 4 of those games to even get back in the conversation.
Stay safe this weekend.
Go Deacs.
Category: General Sports
