Wake Forest University
6-15,3-15ACC
Georgia Tech
15-8,11-6ACC
Deacons Drop Regular Season Finale
3/5/2021 10:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Ian DuBose led Wake Forest on Senior Night with 18 points and four steals.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest fell to Georgia Tech by a final score of 70-57 on Senior Night inside Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday evening.
The Demon Deacons (6-15, 3-15) grabbed nine steals and outrebounded the Yellow Jackets (15-8, 11-6), but could not overcome their hot shooting as they tallied 55.8 percent from the field.
Graduate guard Ian DuBose led the Deacs' scoring effort with 18 points on seven-of-nine shooting from the field and three-of-four from the charity stripe. The Durham, N.C. native also totaled a season-high four steals.
Junior guard Daivien Williamson produced another double-digit scoring game, his 13th of the season. The Winston-Salem, N.C. native finished with 15 points on five-for-nine shooting from the field and four-of-five from the line.
On the glass, Ismael Massoud led the Demon Deacons with five rebounds, while Carter Whitt dished out a team-best four assists.
How It Happened
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Ian DuBose's jumper kicked off scoring for the Deacs on their opening possession.
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After finishing an alley-oop, graduate guard Jalen Johnson knocked down his first three-pointer of the evening to put the Deacs up 7-3 with 15:39 to play in the first period.
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Coming out of the under-12 media timeout, freshman guard Quadry Adams threw down a putback dunk to put the Deacs up 14-11 with 10:47 remaining in the opening half.
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DuBose tied the game at 23 by converting a 3-point play with just over five minutes left to play in the first half.
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Despite a strong defensive performance in the first-half, Wake Forest entered halftime trailing Georgia Tech 31-25.
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DuBose led Wake Forest on offense with 10 points.
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The Old Gold and Black forced nine Georgia Tech turnovers in the first-half, and grabbed seven steals.
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DuBose carried his strong play into the second-half, finishing a dunk to halt a 4-0 mini-run out of the gates by the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech responded with a triple of their own to push their lead to 11 (38-27) with 18:04 remaining.
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After falling behind by 10 points, Ody Oguama's layup sparked a 7-2 run for the Demon Deacons that cut the Yellow Jackets' lead to five with 9:33 left to play.
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After Georgia Tech extended their lead back to 12, rookie guard Carter Whitt knocked down his first three-pointer of the night to keep the contest within single-digits just before the final media timeout.
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Wake Forest eventually fell to Georgia Tech, 75-63.
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Ian Dubose tied his season-high with 18 points and added four steals to lead the effort for the Old Gold and Black.
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Daivien Williamson contributed 15 points as well.
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Stat of the Game
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After scoring 15 points tonight, Daivien Williamson has crossed the 250 point threshold, accumulating 263 points in 21 games.
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Additionally, with 233 points against ACC competition, the junior transfer from East Tennessee State is believed to have scored the most points against conference opponents by any transfer in their debut season since the 1989-90 season (Anthony Tucker).
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Straight From Forbes
"We did a great job, so much better, against the zone tonight than we did against them the first time. We took them out of it. But credit to Georgia Tech, they are an NCAA Tournament team, and they are a team that can go win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament.
I'm very proud of the effort of my team tonight. We were really good defensively. We took them out of their stuff. They really just beat us one on one. The truth is when things broke down, they just isolated us and at times drove us and made baskets. And at times they didn't. I thought we had a chance late, we were trying to get under eight, I think we got it to eight one time, and we just couldn't get over the hump.
But we've been through a lot. To come from where our first game was when we played them January 3 to where we played them now I really think shows improvement. The great thing tonight is that everything I've seen in practice from day one carried over to the court. We haven't always carried it over, but tonight we did. That shows you the character that these kids have. That they keep fighting. They've represented our school in the right way. They're kids that you should be very proud of, because they've been through more than you can imagine. And they come every day ready to go. They're coachable, and they play really hard in practice and they played hard tonight. I wish we could've pulled out the win for them and for the fans, but I'm encouraged by the fight and effort that we had."
Up Next
Wake Forest will open postseason play as the No. 14 seed in the first round of the 2021 ACC Tournament next Tuesday against either Notre Dame or Pittsburgh.
Tipoff inside Greensboro Coliseum is set for 7 p.m. and the game will broadcast on ACC Network.
