Defensive Effort Leads Deacs to ACC Tournament Quarterfinals

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Behind balanced scoring and a stingy defensive effort, the Wake Forest men's basketball team has advanced to the ACC Tournament Quarterfinal round for the second consecutive season with a 72-59 victory over Notre Dame Wednesday afternoon at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

With the win, the Demon Deacons (20-12, 11-9 ACC) reached the 20-win mark for the second time in the last three seasons. Additionally, the 64 wins over the last three seasons mark the most wins in a three-year stretch since the 2002-03 to 2004-05 campaigns.

The Demon Deacons limited Notre Dame (13-20, 7-13 ACC) to their lowest shooting percentage since the Irish lost to The Citadel (65-45) on Dec. 19, 2023. Wake Forest held Notre Dame to just 28.6 percent from the field (14-of-49 FG) and just 26.1 percent from three (6-of-23 3FG). This is just the third time this season that Notre Dame was limited to less than 30 percent shooting from the field.

The Deacs held the Fighting Irish to just 5-of-25 FG and 0-of-8 3FG in the second half, as just 10 of Notre Dame's points came from the field in the final 20 minutes of the game.

Individually, the Deacs were led by senior forward Andrew Carr, who put in an all-around performance as he contributed 12 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three blocks. It was just the third time since 2000 that a Wake Forest player recorded 10-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and three-plus blocks in a conference tournament game, joining Eric Williams (2006) and Devin Thomas (2016).

Sophomore guard Kevin Miller posted a team-high 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting in addition to seven rebounds and a pair of assists. His seven rebounds were tied for his second-most in a game this season and most since the game at Duke on Feb. 12. He is now just 38 points away from joining the 1,000-point club.

Junior duo Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth combined for 24 points and five rebounds out of the backcourt for the Deacs. Hildreth now needs just 39 points to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career.

Wake Forest will play against No. 4 seed Pitt in the 2024 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals Thursday afternoon with tipoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN or ESPN2.

The full bracket can be found here.

Tickets are now available – buy yours today to support the Deacs in D.C.!

How It Happened

A pullup three from the top of the key by Sallis gave the Deacs the early 3-0 lead.
- Miller followed up with a three of his own from the left wing for the 6-0 lead 90 seconds in.
Reid found Carr in the paint for a basket to keep the lead, 9-2.
On the next possession Carr got another one on a second-chance slam.
Out of the timeout, Sallis hit two free throws from the 13-3 lead with 15:45 to go in the half.
Sallis hit his second three from the top of the key to maintain the double-digit lead.
Miller hit a jump shot from the wing two possessions later.
Sallis got a quick bucket to get back the double-digit lead ahead of the timeout.
- On the first play out of the timeout, Miller found his way to the basket and converted the and-one for the 23-9 lead.
Hildreth found Reid in the paint two plays later for a hookshot to maintain the Deacs' lead.
Sallis went to 2-of2 from the free throw line to make it 28-15 Deacs.
Out of the timeout, Carr hit two free throws to make it an 11-point lead.
Friedrichsen got his first points of the game off a putback layup to keep Wake up double digits with 5:45 to go in the half.
Carr found Marsh under the basket for a slam.
On the next possession Miller hit a jumper to keep the 11-point margin.
Hildreth took it to the basket with 2:30 left in the half to keep the Deacs up.
Carr got a second-chance bucket on the very next possession to get Wake up nine, 40-31, with 2:08 on the clock.
The Wake Forest defense held Notre Dame without a field goal for the final four minutes of the half.
The Deacs went into halftime with the 40-34 lead.
- Sallis had a game-high 12 points in the first half.
- Carr had a game-high nine first-half rebounds.
The Deacs opened the second half with a slam by Carr from Reid.
A hook shot from Reid two possessions later extended Wake's lead, 44-36.
A floater from Miller off a pass from Reid went in to keep the 8-point lead.
A steal on the defensive end by Hildreth led to an and-one conversion also by Hildreth to put Wake back up by 11.
A pullup floater from the baseline by Miller extended the Deacs' lead to 13, 52-39, with 13:50 to play.
Carr fought for the offensive rebound and putback bucket to maintain Wake's double-digit lead.
Friedrichsen got himself a steal and a layup out of the timeout for the 13-point lead.
On the next possession Carr found Hildreth open in the corner for his first three-pointer of the game to put Wake up 59-43 with 9:50 to play.
Friedrichsen hit his first three of the game, a stepback from the top of the key, to keep Wake ahead 62-47.
Friedrichsen got a steal that led to a layup by Sallis and the Deacs' maintained the 13-point margin.
Reid got the second-chance putback to keep Wake up.
Miller hit two free throws for the double-digit lead.
Hildreth got to the paint on the next play for a bucket and the 13-point lead.
Reid had a putback slam to seal the win, 72-59.

Stats of the Game

Wake Forest reached the 20-win mark for the second time in the last three years.
- The 64 wins over the last three seasons mark the most wins in a three-year stretch since the 2002-03 to 2004-05.
The Demon Deacons limited Notre Dame to its lowest shooting percentage since the Irish lost to The Citadel (65-45) on Dec. 19, 2023. Wake Forest limited Notre Dame to just 28.6 percent from the field (14-of-49 FG) and just 26.1 percent from three (6-of-23 3FG).
- The Deacs held the Fighting Irish to just 5-of-25 FG and 0-of-8 3FG in the second half as just 10 of Notre Dame's points came from the field in the final 20 minutes of the game.
- This is just the third time this season that Notre Dame was limited to less than 30 percent shooting from the field.
- The Demon Deacons nearly set a new ACC Tournament program record in opponent field goal percentage as the Deacs have held two tournament opponents to 25.4 percent shooting.

Key Moment

With just under 15:30 left in the game, Wake Forest went on a key 13-4 run that helped push the lead up with 16 points, its largest in the game.
- Cameron Hildreth was key during the stretch as a and-one layup pushed the lead to double figures.
- Four minutes later, Hildreth ended the run with a three that gave Wake Forest a commanding 59-43 lead.
  - From that point, Wake Forest led by three or more possessions the rest of the way as Notre Dame could only cut the deficit to nine.

Coach's Comments
"I want to congratulate Micah Shrewsberry on an outstanding first year. I knew he was going to be a problem when I saw him coaching Penn State. He is a great coach and person who has really good players. Burton is going to be one of the premier players in our league along with his son, Braeden Shrewsberry.

About five days after my wife had a stroke, Shrewsberry was the first college coach to reach out to me. He sent my wife and I flowers to us in Pensacola. I'll never forget that, you don't forget things like that in your life. Not that people didn't reach out later but he was first and I will never forget it.

We got off to a great start on both offense and defense. In this game we wanted to make Burton a passer and not let him get down hill, in the ball screen and the zoom action. For the most part I thought we did a great job at that. We weren't in the drop this time, we were up to touch and didn't let him turn the corner.

We switched our match ups. We let Cameron guard Shrewsberry and Boopie did an unbelievable job guarding Burton. That was a big part of the game for us. They went small and we hurt them at the rim. We put an emphasis on getting the ball inside. When they doubled us we wanted to finish at the rim because they would have a small guy there.

Our goal was seven turnovers, we only allowed seven. For offensive rebounds it was 10, we finished with 13. Our bench was also very good defensively. Parker got a bunch of deflections, Matt was really good on the ball screen and Zach played physical at the rim. I think they were 8-for-20 at the rim and they went without a field goal from the 4:39 to the 13:53 mark of the second half without a field goal. That was a big part of the game." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest will play against No. 4 seed Pitt in the 2024 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals Thursday afternoon with tipoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN or ESPN2.

The full bracket can be found here.

Tickets are now available – buy yours today to support the Deacs in D.C.!

Defensive Effort Leads Deacs to ACC Tournament Quarterfinals

Next Event

Team Stats

Kevin Miller

Hunter Sallis

Andrew Carr

Cameron Hildreth

Players Mentioned

Andrew Carr

Cameron Hildreth

Kevin Miller

Hunter Sallis

Wake Forest Athletics

Defensive Effort Leads Deacs to ACC Tournament Quarterfinals

Related News

Next Event

Team Stats

Game Leaders

Kevin Miller

Hunter Sallis

Andrew Carr

Cameron Hildreth

Players Mentioned

Andrew Carr

Cameron Hildreth

Kevin Miller

Hunter Sallis

Related Videos