Wake Forest Falls to Georgia in Second-Half Thriller

ATHENS, Ga. - Coming off their season opening win against Elon on Monday evening (Nov. 6) the Wake Forest men's basketball team went on their first road trip of the year to take on Georgia. The Deacs fell to Georgia, 80-77, in the final moments.

Sophomore Kevin Miller led the charge for the Deacs on Friday night with a game-high 22 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Miller knocked down three three-pointers and went a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe.

Along with Miller, three other Deacs scored double-digit points in Athens. Senior Andrew Carr scored 18 buckets with eight rebounds. Junior Cameron Hildreth added 12 points, two of those came from beyond the arc. Hildreth also went 2-2 from the free throw line. Junior Hunter Sallis added 13 points with two threes, two rebounds and two assists.

Junior Matthew Marsh and Carr added two blocks apiece on the defensive side of the court. Miller picked up two steals to add to the Deacs defensive efforts. Freshman Marqus Marion cleaned the boards with eight rebounds for the Demon Deacons.

Up next, the Deacs will head to the Shriners Childrens Charleston Classic on Nov. 16. The Deacs are set to take on Utah in the opening game at 9:00 p.m. Thursday night in Charleston, S.C.

How It Happened

Andrew Carr got the Deacs on the board and up early with a three-pointer to go up 3-2 at the 17:51 mark.
Boopie Miller cut the deficit to four with a driving layup and Wake went into the first media timeout down 9-5.
Cameron Hildreth got on the board with a fastbreak layup out of the timeout and cut the deficit to one with a three-pointer.
Parker Friedrichsen got the Deacs the 13-11 lead on the next possession with another bucket from range.
Back-to-back three's from Hildreth and Sallsi extended Wake's lead 19-12 at the 12:07 mark.
Marqus Marion got his first points of the game on a corner three for a 22-14 Wake lead.
After a run by the Bulldogs, a pair of free throws from Miller got the Deacs back on the board, 24-24, at the 7:28 mark.
A floater from Miller after a Georgia layup kept it tied at 26.
A pair of free throws from Miller followed by a dunk from Marsh got the Deacs to 30.
Back-to-back three's from Miller for the Deacs within two 36-38, with 1:07 left in the half.
Wake Forest went into the half down 40-36.
- Miller led all scorers with a game-high 14 points in the first half, going 4-of-8 from the field and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc. He also went a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line.
- Andrew Carr and MAtthew Marsh both lead all players in the first half with five rebounds apiece.
Sallis opened the scoring in the second half with a driving layup and Marsh followed up with a dunk to tie it up at 40 in the first minute of the second half.
Miller capitalized on an and-one play to give the Deacs the 43-42 lead.
A three from the top of the key by Carr put the Deacs back in front, 46-45, with 17:51 to play.
A putback from Carr and a floater from Sallis for the Deacs in front again, 50-49.
After a run by the Bulldogs, a layup from Sallis and a fastbreak from Hildreth cut the Deacs deficit, 54-59, with 13 minutes to play.
Carr sank a pair of free throws at the 9:51 mark to keep Wake within 10 of the Bulldogs.
- Another bucket from Carr on the next possession got the Deacs within nine, 58-69.
The Deacs went into the under-8 media timeout down 60-71 with 7:03 to play.
Sallis drained a corner three to get the Deacs back within 10, 65-73.
Miller hit his third three of the game, for a season-high 20 points, at the 5:38 mark and Sallis went 2-of-2 from the stripe to get the Deacs within five with five minutes to play.
An and-one conversion from Carr put the Deacs down two, 72-74 with 4:48 to go.
Miller sank both his free throws at the 1:23 mark to get the Deacs back within five, 75-80.
Carr got a layup off the baseline and the Deacs got within three, 77-80, with 43.2 seconds to play.
Wake Forest fell to Georgia, 77-80.

Stat of the Game

Kevin Miller led the Deacs with a game-high 22 points on 6-of-15 shooting and a perfect 7-of-7 from the stripe in 30 minutes of action.
- He also had a game-high seven assists and just one turnover with two steals.

Coach's Comments
"Credit to Georgia, they came out and played better than we did. They ran a lot more half court stuff than they have shown in the past and they were pretty disciplined in it. They put a lot of pressure on us offensively driving the ball which put us in foul trouble. Georgia did a really good job protecting the paint. We knew that coming in here that we wouldn't get to the rim a lot and when we did we had to play off two feet and shot fake, which we didn't do. Georgia played really physically without fouling. Thomasson was really good off the dribble. Rahim and Melendez have also gotten a lot better.

For us, we took way too many bad shots from two. We shot 41 percent from two which is not good. We launched at the rim, had too many dribble pull-up twos and we had too many turnovers in the first half. We had nine turnovers in the first half. We didn't shot fake at the rim when we knew they were going to be there. We just threw up bad shots. Transition defense was also a problem. We couldn't get a critical box out late when the game was on the line. Our guards were very physical at the point of attack versus their delay game or zoom action. We got caught in a lot of screens and we only forced seven turnovers. We weren't putting enough pressure on them. Congratulations to Mike and his team. It was a blown opportunity on the road and one we aren't going to have a chance to get back in the non-conference. We are going to have to go back and get better." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest will travel to Charleston, South Carolina, for the Schriner's Children Charleston Classic. Wake Forest will play three games throughout the week, beginning with a Thursday night matchup against Utah.

The winner of the Wake Forest/Utah game will face the winner of the Houston/Towson game Friday at 4:30 p.m. and the losers will face each other Friday at 7 p.m.

Next Event

Team Stats

Kevin Miller

Andrew Carr

Hunter Sallis

Cameron Hildreth

Players Mentioned

Andrew Carr

Parker Friedrichsen

Cameron Hildreth

Marqus Marion

Matthew Marsh

Kevin Miller

Hunter Sallis

Wake Forest Athletics