WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Looking to round out a successful week of home competition, the Wake Forest men’s basketball team fought through to get the deed done on Saturday evening (Feb. 11), defeating Georgia Tech (9-16, 2-13) in a thrilling 71-70 finish.
It was the Demon Deacons’ (17-9, 9-6) ninth Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) victory of the year. Additionally, the team has now won 30 home games since the start of 2021-22, being one of five schools in the country to notch such a feat.
Fresh off of his historic Tuesday performance against North Carolina (Feb. 7), Tyree Appleby made clutch plays down the stretch while scoring the final four points for Wake Forest. Playing all 40 minutes for the eighth time this season, the graduate guard totaled 16 points and six assists.
Cameron Hildreth led the way with a game-high 19 points, going 9-of-12 from the free-throw line.
Bobi Klintman had another spark performance as a reserve, posting 11 points and grabbing five rebounds. The freshman forward made two of his four tries from three-point distance.
Matthew Marsh was perfect from the floor for the fifth straight game, adding eight points (4-of-4 in field goals). Andrew Carr contributed nine points, five boards, and two steals.
Earning the majority of its looks in the second half, Wake Forest went 19-of-24 at the charity stripe.
The Deacs hit the road next weekend and travel down to Miami to face the Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 18). Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. ET and the game will air live on regional Bally Sports networks.
Standout Stats
- Wake Forest is an astounding 30-4 inside Joel Coliseum since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- The Deacs 30-4 home record is the third-best in the ACC, behind Duke and North Carolina, during that time period and is one of the best in the country.
- Wake Forest is one of only five schools in the country to win 30 home games since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- Cameron Hildreth scored 19 points during the Saturday contest, his third-highest total in an ACC showing this year.
- Additionally, the sophomore guard was exceptional at the free-throw line, going 9-of-12.
How It Happened
- Hildreth intercepted a pass and took it coast-to-coast to open the scoring for Wake Forest with a finish at the rim.
- Williamson connected on a triple off a Monsanto dish as the Deacs took a 5-3 lead at the 18:30 mark.
- Carr doubled the advantage with a jumper in the paint as Appleby picked up his first assist of the contest.
- Hildreth continued the 9-0 run with a driving layup with 16:18 remaining in the first half.
- The Deacs held the Yellow Jackets to 0-of-6 from the floor over the 9-0 run.
- Hildreth earned his way to the line for a pair of free throws before Appleby knocked down a corner three-pointer and extended the lead to 14-5 with 13:49 left in the first half.
- The sophomore guard put Wake Forest up double-digits with his third basket of the game and forced Georgia Tech into a timeout at the 13:16 mark.
- Georgia Tech opened the contest shooting 2-of-12 from the floor.
- Monsanto connected on his first triple of the evening after an offensive rebound from Carr to make it 19-12 Wake Forest with 10:32 remaining in the half.
- Appleby found Marsh for an alley-oop slam on consecutive Wake Forest baskets to tie the game at 23-23 with 6:31 to go.
- Marsh continued his presence inside with another dunk, this time off a Monsanto assist.
- Klintman cut it to 28-29 after Appleby found him in the corner for an open triple at the 4:04 mark.
- Marsh recorded his fourth dunk of the first half with a putback slam with 2:29 remaining in the half.
- Appleby found Klintman with an inbound pass for an open dunk as the Deacs cut it to four with 1:25 to go.
- Carr closed out the first half scoring with a dunk on the end of Appleby’s sixth assist of the contest.
- Wake Forest trailed Georgia Tech, 34-38, at half.
- Marsh and Hildreth led the Deacs in the first half with eight points apiece.
- Appleby closed out the half with a game-high six assists in addition to three points.
- Six of Wake Forest’s 14 baskets in the first half were dunks (43 percent).
- Wake Forest forced a Georgia Tech shot clock violation on its first possession of the second half.
- The Deacs capitalized on another Yellow Jacket turnover as Appleby opened the second-half scoring with a triple at the 18:24 mark.
- Georgia Tech turned it over on its first three possessions of the second half.
- Monsanto brought the Deacs to within a point with a reverse layup off a Carr assist.
- Georgia Tech was held to zero field goals (0-for-6) over the first 4:06 of action in the half.
- Hildreth earned his way to the line and went 2-for-2 before finishing a driving layup to cut the deficit back to three.
- The sophomore guard continued his strong performance as he finished at the rim once again out of a timeout.
- Appleby earned his way to the line and went 2-for-2 as he cut the deficit to two.
- Klintman knocked down his second triple of the contest with 10:37 remaining after a nice pass from Carr.
- Hildreth tied the game at 53-53 with a pair of free throws.
- Klintman gave the Deacs a two-point advantage as he went 2-for-2 from the line at the 9:01 mark.
- Wake Forest held Georgia Tech scoreless for 3:39 and 0-of-6 from the floor during the 7-0 run.
- Hildreth and Klintman continued the Deacs’ impressive performance at the line with three more makes from the charity stripe.
- Appleby tied the game at 60-60 with a driving layup before Carr regained the lead with a layup of his own off of a Hildreth assist at the 4:53 mark.
- Hildreth evened the game at 63-63 out of the under-four media timeout.
- Appleby fought through contact and finished at the rim to make it a one-possession game with 1:48 remaining.
- Carr went perfect at the line to cut the deficit to just a point with 31 seconds to go.
- Appleby gave Wake Forest a 69-68 lead with a tough finish with just 12 seconds remaining.
- With seven seconds remaining, Appleby drove the length of the floor and earned his way to the line once again, where he would knock both shots down and win the game,71-70, with two seconds remaining.
Coach’s Comments
“Sometimes you just have to find a way, man, when things aren’t going well. I’m not taking any credit away from Georgia Tech. They played a flawless game plan, especially on offense. They had long possessions and then they hit some timely shots and got some big time offensive rebounds. Franklin was a monster in there on the glass and around the basket, and then Terry and Coleman made a couple huge threes when we collapsed a little bit. I don’t have a Master’s degree, but I do have one in body language and I could just tell we just didn’t have the juice. I don’t know why, because we didn’t practice that way, we didn’t come to shoot around that way. We just got up early and then it’s just like, ‘I guess the game is over’, but it’s not.
Halftime was motivational, and then a couple of times in the timeouts I got on them pretty hard. I tried not to because I think they need confidence. We found a way to win and did it with some defense. Defense was pretty good all game, I think it was more on offense. They switched everything one-through-five, they flattened us out in the first half and we just settled and jacked shots. Second half we drove, played off two feet to slow it down and that’s why we got to the free throw line. That’s why we got easier baskets. We could have done that in the first half but we didn’t. That caused us a lot of problems. We got a couple of big time defensive stops late, credit to our team. On the play where they had the ball looking at the time, Smith drove it. I thought it was a charge, we’ll have to go back and see, but we already had a play drawn up because we didn’t have a timeout left, but this is how smart these guys are. They went quick, there’s still six seconds so we changed the play, yelled it out on the court while they were looking at the clock again, and they executed again flawlessly and Ty got fouled and went to the basket and won the game. It’s nice to have a guy like that where you put the ball in his hands and he can make plays. I’d rather win than lose and I told them after the game ‘It’s February, you can win one of these like this, but you can’t have a bunch of them, we can’t can’t string them together.’ We need the week off. It’s coming at a good time.” – head coach Steve Forbes
Upcoming
- Saturday, Feb. 18 – at Miami – 2 p.m. // Regional Bally Sports Networks
- Wednesday, Feb. 22 – at NC State – 9 p.m. // Regional Bally Sports Networks
- Saturday, Feb. 25 – vs Notre Dame – 7 p.m. // ACC Network
