Shorthanded Deacs Edged in Overtime by Virginia

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Playing without its top two scorers, Wake Forest was edged in overtime by reigning NCAA Champion Virginia, 65-63, on Sunday at LJVM Coliseum. The Deacs fall to 9-10 overall and 2-7 in the ACC, while the Cavaliers improved to 13-6 overall and 5-4 in the ACC.

Andrien White had 21 points to lead Wake, his second consecutive 20-point game. Isaiah Mucius had 13 points and 10 rebounds for his second career double-double. Olivier Sarr added 11 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia used an early drought by the Wake Forest offense to go on a 9-0 run to take a 12-4 lead. The Deacs responded with a 12-0 run of their own to retake the lead, 27-21 with 3:00 left in the half. White, who finished the first half with 11 points, closed out the half with a three to push the lead to 35-28 at halftime, Wake's largest lead of the opening 20 minutes.

White opened the second half with another three pointer and a putback slam by Neath gave the Deacs' their largest lead of the day at 40-28, early in the second half. Virginia responded with a 18-4 run to retake the lead, 46-44, with 8:00 to go. The Deacs retook the lead, 51-49 with 2:59 to go on a layup-and-one for Torry Johnson. With the game tied 51-51 with 52.7 left, White made a pair from the line to give the Deacs a two-point lead. Jay Huff's three with 38 seconds to go pushed Virginia back in front and a pair of free throws from Kehei Clark gave the Cavaliers a 56-53 lead with 20 seconds to go. White was fouled from behind the arc with 1.7 seconds to go and made all three to tie the game and force overtime.

Virginia opened up a 63-59 lead in the first two minutes of overtime. Mucius' three with 1:45 to go, cut the lead to 63-62. The Deacs got a defensive stop and rebound with 12 seconds to go and called timeout trailing 65-63 with 8.2 seconds left but couldn't find a tying or go-ahead score.

NOTEWORTHY

Wake Forest's 35 first half points were the most allowed in the opening half this season by Virginia
Olivier Sarr had his 14th double figure scoring game of the season, including his 13th double figure performance in the last 14 games
Isaiah Mucius scored in double figures for the first time since the Long Beach State game in the Wooden Legacy (Nov. 29)
Brandon Childress, the Deacs' leading scorer and assist leader, missed the game due to a lower leg injury
Chaundee Brown, the Deacs' second leading scorer and rebounder missed his sixth consecutive game due to a lower leg injury
Jahcobi Neath made his first career start

QUOTABLE
"Anytime you lose it's not a pleasant feeling or the desired outcome you seek," head coach Danny Manning said. "I thought we did enough on defense to keep it close. We got off to a slow start offensively and Virginia has been known to do that to teams. We went about nine minutes where we didn't score, but our defense did a good job keeping us in the game. We had some guys play really well. We are disappointed in the outcome."

UP NEXT
Wake Forest concludes its January schedule on Wednesday with a visit to Notre Dame. Game time is 7 p.m., and the game will air on ACC Network.

Players Mentioned

Chaundee Brown

Brandon Childress

Torry Johnson

Isaiah Mucius

Jahcobi Neath

Olivier Sarr

Andrien White