Deacs Battle Notre Dame on the Road

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Kicking off its final week of road action for the 2023-24 regular season, Wake Forest men's basketball (18-10, 10-7) visited Notre Dame (11-17, 6-11) on Tuesday night (Feb. 27). Scrappy defense from both sides took over the second half before the Demon Deacons fell short in a 70-65 finish.

Lead guard Kevin Miller paced the Deacs with team highs of 16 points and five assists in 39 minutes played. Cameron Hildreth got into a scoring flow early to finish with 15 points, shooting 50 percent from the floor. The junior guard had an impact on the rebounding end as well to snag eight rebounds.

Deacon big man Efton Reid III tallied his fifth double-double of the year, piecing together a line of 12 points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes, making four of five field goal attempts.

Andrew Carr chipped in 12 points (5-of-9 shooting), four rebounds and two blocks.

The Deacs outrebounded Notre Dame 38-33 and shot 80 percent from the free-throw line.

Wake Forest steps into its final road test of the regular season on Saturday (March 2), heading to Virginia Tech for a second matchup of the winter. Tip off is slated for 5:30 p.m. ET and the game can be found on The CW.

How It Happened

Hildreth got the Deacs on the board in the first minute of the game for the 3-0 lead.
Miller followed with a coast-to-coast layup off a steal to put Wake up 5-0.
Sallis hit his first three of the game to keep the Deacs in front, 8-2.
Another bucket from Hildreth, this one a fadeaway jumper from midrange, maintained Wake's lead.
Miller converted an and-one to put Wake up six, just four minutes in.
- On the next possession, Miller found Reid in the lane for an alley-oop dunk.
Three plays later, Miller got in the lane for a jumper and Wake went up 17-12.
- Reid got a bucket on the next possession to make it 19-15.
After a short run by the Irish, a right-wing three from Monsanto tied it up at 22.
Out of the timeout, Hildreth hit his second three of the night for the 25-24 lead.
- On the next possession, Miller got inside for a layup to keep the Deacs in front.
Miller then found Carr in the paint for a bucket and Wake stayed in front, 29-28.
After a defensive stop and rebound from Sallis, Hildreth converted an and-one out of the timeout to put Wake up 32-28.
Two possessions later, Carr hit his first three of the game from the top of the key for the 35-28 lead.
Carr got into the lane for a quick bucket to keep Wake ahead by four.
- Reid then went to the line and hit two free throws to maintain the lead.
A steal by Hildreth led to his own layup on the other end to maintain the lead.
- The Wake Forest defense held Notre Dame without a field goal for over two minutes.
Wake Forest took the 43-38 lead into halftime.
- Hildreth led Wake Forest with 13 first-half points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field.
- Reid led all players with six rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
Sallis hit two free throws to start the second-half scoring and keep Wake Forest in front by seven.
Miller hit a three from the right corner to extend Wake's lead to nine.
The Wake Forest defense held Notre Dame scoreless for over two minutes.
Hildreth took it coast-to-coast for a layup to end a Wake scoring drought and maintain the lead.
Sallis ended a Notre Dame run with a jumper from the lane and retook the Wake lead, 53-52, with 10:45 to play.
The Wake Forest defense again held Notre Dame scoreless for an extended period, this time over three minutes.
A bucket from Carr in the lane ended a scoring drought and put Wake within one, 55-54.
- Four defensive stops and a bucket from Reid put Wake pack in front, 56-55, with 4:56 left to play.
A bucket from Reid out of the timeout put Wake back within one, 59-58, after a short Notre Dame run.
- Two free throws from Reid kept Wake within one.
Miller hit a layup right before a timeout to keep the Deacs within two, 64-62, with 1:16 to go.
A three-pointer from Carr with under 10 seconds to play got Wake within three, 68-65, with 3.9 seconds to play.
Wake Forest fell to Notre Dame, 70-65.

Stats of the Game

Efton Reid III recorded his team-best fifth double-double of the season, as the junior big man added 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and 10 rebounds in addition to a block and a steal.
- It marked his 10th double digit scoring game of the year and sixth double-digit rebounding game.
For the 21st time this season, four or more Deacons notched double figures in scoring:
- Kevin Miller – 16 points
- Cameron Hildreth – 15 points
- Efton Reid III – 12 points
- Andrew Carr – 12 points

Coach's Comments
"Congrats to Mike and his team. They made the plays they had to make down the stretch to win the game. For us, we should have been up a lot more at halftime the way we played offense but defensively we weren't locked in. I think at one point they scored on 9-out-of-11 possessions in the first half. That's not the level of defense that we need to play to get to where we want to be. Then in the second half, we played good defense and couldn't score. It was just a tale of an ineptitude in both halves on one end of the floor. We couldn't put the two together.

We had a really hard time guarding Markus Burton. He's a really good player and we knew that coming in. Booth and Davis hurt us. Davis hurt us late driving the ball against a guy that is a pretty good defender for us. You have to tip your cap to them.

We got slaughtered at the free throw line and we can't win that way. It's been the same story for us on the road pretty much the entire year. We had some really costly turnovers late that hurt us and then just didn't make tough plays down the stretch on both ends of the court. It's a really disappointing loss for us, and it's a really good win for them. They deserved to win the game." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest steps into its final road test of the regular season on Saturday (March 2), heading to Virginia Tech for a second matchup of the winter. Tip off is slated for 5:30 p.m. ET and the game can be found on The CW.

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Team Stats

Kevin Miller

Cameron Hildreth

Efton Reid III

Andrew Carr

Players Mentioned

Andrew Carr

Cameron Hildreth

Kevin Miller

Efton Reid III

Wake Forest Athletics