GREENSBORO, N.C. – Wake Forest fell to Notre Dame by a final score of 80-77 in the opening round of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday night.
The Demon Deacons (6-16, 3-15) held as large of a lead as 16 points in the second half, but fell to the Fighting Irish (11-14, 7-11) at the buzzer after Carter Whitt knocked down a jumper to tie the game at 77 with under a minute remaining.
Junior forward Isaiah Mucius notched a 20 point, 12 rebound double-double in the contest, his first double-double of the season and fourth of his career. The East Patchogue, N.Y. native’s 12 rebounds are a career high, and his six offensive rebounds are a new career high against ACC competition.
Wake Forest also received key contributions from junior guard Daivien Williamson and freshman guard Carter Whitt.
Williamson led the Deacs in scoring with 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from beyond the arc. The Winston-Salem, N.C. native is the first Demon Deacon to go perfect from beyond the arc on at least five attempts in an ACC tournament game.
With 12 points and seven assists, Whitt became the first freshman to post at least 10 points and five assists in an ACC tournament game since Bryant Crawford scored 19 points and 6 assists in the opening round of the 2016 ACC Tournament. Additionally, the Raleigh, N.C. native’s seven dimes are the most by a freshman in the ACC tournament since Ish Smith tallied 15 assists in the opening round of the 2007 ACC tournament.
How It Happened
After the Irish scored the contest’s opening basket, the Deacs embarked on a 10-0 run that gave the Deacs a 10-2 advantage going into the under-16 timeout.
Isaiah Mucius led the charge during the run with a 3-point play and layup.
Mucius scored a turnaround jumper in the post to give the junior 11 points just six minutes into the game.
The Deacs followed the 10-0 run with an 11-5 run capped off by a made triple from Ian DuBose that put the Deacs up 21-7 with 12:10 to go in the opening period.
Ismael Massoud knocked down a layup in traffic to put Wake Forest up 12 (33-21) with 7:45 left until halftime.
Massoud’s first 3-pointer of the night silenced a 9-0 Notre Dame run and kicked off an 11-2 run capped off by another triple from Massoud that gave the Deacs a 12 point (44-32) lead with 1:34 to go until the half.
Wake Forest entered the intermission leading Notre Dame 44-37
The Deacs 44 points are a season high for points in the first half against ACC competition. Additionally,
Mucius and Daivien Williamson led the Deacs first half scoring effort with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Massoud and DuBose also contributed eight points apiece.
Carter Whitt opened up scoring in the second half with his first 3-pointer of the night to push the Demon Deacon lead back to double digits (47-37) just over a minute into the half.
Whitt knocked down his second triple minutes later to give the Deacs a 13-point lead (55-42) with 16:44 left to play.
Williamson ended a 7-0 run by the Irish with a layup, pushing the Demon Deacon lead back up to 10 (66-56) with 10:28 remaining in the game.
After Notre Dame cut the lead down to six (69-63), Williamson knocked down two consecutive 3-pointers to extend Wake Forest’s advantage back to 12 (75-63) with 7:20 left in the second half.
Isaiah Mucius notched his first double double of the season and fourth of his career with his fifth offensive rebound.
This marked a career-high against ACC competition.
Carter Whitt knocked down a clutch jumper to tie the game at 77 with 51 seconds left to play following a 14-0 run by Notre Dame.
Notre Dame knocked down a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the game 80-77.
Stat of the Game
Daivien Williamson (5-of-5 from three) became the first player in program history to shoot 100% from beyond the arc in an ACC tournament game on at least five attempts.
Key Moment
The Demon Deacons opened the second half on a furious 14-5 run that saw their seven-point halftime lead balloon into a 16 point (58-42) lead with 16:26 left in the game.
Carter Whitt and Isaiah Mucius accounted for 12 of the run’s 14 points, as Whitt hit two triples and Mucius converted a three-point play at the foul line and knocked down a 3-pointer of his own.
Straight From Forbes
“Credit to Trey Wertz for making a big-time shot at the buzzer. Sometimes the game can be cruel. It doesn’t always reward the team that maybe deserved to win. We led for 35 minutes of the game, but we just couldn’t finish it. We had a great week of practice. We were excited to play. A month ago we went there and it didn’t go very well. I was pretty upset about the locker room afterwards, and I think it just goes to show how much character these kids have to continue to battle even after a tough month in February. But we continued to fight, and we got better and better. This is a team that comes off a win and plays Florida State, and we’ve got a really good chance to beat them. A lot of teams could’ve folded when we were down in the month of February, but we didn’t and we just continued to battle.
The last play, that’s not on Daivien. You look at that thing two ways. You can call timeout and run a play, which I’ve done before, but I didn’t really want them to set their defense because they were switching everything. We ran a play out of a timeout, they switched it all, we turned it over. I felt like with the court being unorganized, we’d have a better chance. The problem was Daivien shot it too quick and he shot a jump shot, when in reality you needed to try to get to the basket, or get there, stop, and find somebody else. But it’s not on him. He played an outstanding game, he had 21 points. We played a pretty darn good game, had 14 assists, seven turnovers, that’s pretty good for us. I told them afterwards that I was proud of them. I’m disappointed for them, it’s a hard way to lose. But we’ll learn from it and we’ll grow from it.
I think this is a season that we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and about our team, and what we want to do moving forward. There’s going to be a lot of guys coming back that understand the expectations and what we need to do. So I thought it was a positive moment even though it is a loss.”
