Wake Forest Athletics
Deacons, Yellow Jackets Hungry To Break Streaks Tuesday Night
1/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2007
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Deacons, Yellow Jackets Hungry To Break Streaks Tuesday Night At Joel Coliseum
Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, two teams looking to break frustrating losing streaks, meet Tuesday night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum (8 p.m./Raycom-Lincoln Financial TV).
The Demon Deacons, 9-11 overall and 1-7 in the ACC, have lost six straight games and will be trying to avoid their longest losing streak since 1986. Wake Forest will also try to end its three-game home court losing streak.
Georgia Tech, 13-7 and 2-5, has lost three straight and the Yellow Jackets are looking to snap a 16-game road losing skid.
Wake Forest is coming off a 74-66 loss at Florida State on Saturday. The Deacons held a narrow lead with 5:00 remaining, but the Seminoles pulled away down the stretch. Kyle Visser (17 points) and L.D. Williams (13 points) paced the Deacs.
The Deacons have been led all season by Visser, a 6-11 senior All-ACC candidate. Visser ranks in the top 10 in the ACC in scoring (17.3 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg), blocks (1.3 bspg) and field goal percentage (.610).
Georgia Tech lost at home Sunday to Virginia Tech, 73-65. The Yellow Jackets pulled to within three points with 2:24 remaining on a Javaris Crittenton three-point field goal, but could not get over the hump.
Freshmen Thaddeus Young (14.4 ppg) and Crittenton (13.3 ppg) lead the Yellow Jackets in scoring.
Wake Forest leads the all-time series, 32-28, including an 86-71 victory over Tech in Winston-Salem last season. The two teams have split regular season meetings in five of the past six seasons.
Wake Forest Trends & Streaks
- The three-point field goal has recently become a big part of the Wake Forest arsenal. The Deacons have made 26 three-pointers over the last three games and have made at least eight treys in each of those games.
- Meanwhile, blocked shots have been scarce for Wake Forest. The Deacons have blocked just one shot in each of the last three games.
- Typically a good rebounding team, the Deacons have been out-rebounded by a combined 14 boards over the last two games.
- Over the last six games, Deacon opponents have shot a sizzling 53.5 percent against Wake Forest.
- In each of the last five games, a frontcourt player -- Kyle Visser, Jamie Skeen and Kevin Swinton -- have led Wake Forest in scoring.
- Freshman point guard Ishmael Smith is back on track. He has 14 assists over the last two games including nine assists and one turnover at FSU Saturday.
Wake Forest-Georgia Tech Series History
- Wake Forest leads the all-time series, 32-28.
- The Demon Deacons and Yellow Jackets have split a pair of regular season meetings in each of the three previous seasons.
- Last year each team won on its home court by 15-point margins.
- Wake Forest has won six out of the last nine meetings.
- Wake Forest is 13-4 against the Jackets in Joel Coliseum.
- Wake Forest has won the last two meetings and seven of the last eight meetings in Winston-Salem.
- Georgia Tech is 19-9 against the Deacons in games played in Atlanta.
- Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser is 7-4 all-time against Georgia Tech.
- Yellow Jacket coach Paul Hewitt is 5-8 all-time against the Demon Deacons.
- Wake Forest is 36-31 all-time against teams from the Peach State, including a home loss to Georgia on Dec. 2. The Deacons lost to Georgia in basketball the same day the Wake football team beat Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship.
Deacon-Yellow Jacket Connections
- Wake Forest has one player from Georgia on its roster -- sophomore Shamaine Dukes (Cuthbert, Ga.).
- Georgia Tech has one North Carolinian on its roster -- junior Anthony Morrow (Charlotte). Wake Forest freshman Jamie Skeen is also from Charlotte.
- Morrow was North Carolina's high school player of the year in 2004. Skeen won the award in 2005.
- In 2003, Wake Forest had the ACC Player of the Year (Josh Howard) and Tech had the ACC Rookie of the Year (Chris Bosh).
- Both schools' radio rights belong to Winston-Salem-based ISP.
