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Defense Pays Off: Deacons make adjustments to stop Panthers
Journal Photo by Walt Unks
Wake Forest's Ishmael Smith drives against High Point's Nick Barbour.
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Published: November 19, 2009
There was reason to believe that Wake Forest would take charge in the second half last night against High Point of the Big South Conference, so the most pressing questions for the crowd of 9,344 at Joel Coliseum were when and how.
The answers were: quickly and emphatically.
Changing their defense to choke off the Panthers' backcourt penetration, the Deacons scored 14 of the first 16 points of the second half and barged to an 83-60 victory. Al-Farouq Aminu once again led the way with 22 points and 10 rebounds, Ish Smith contributed 13 points, five rebounds and five assists, Chas McFarland piled up 11 points and 12 rebounds and freshman C.J. Harris delivered 12 points before fouling out with 3½ minutes remaining.
But the Deacons broke the game open with their defense, holding the Panthers to just seven points over the first 14 minutes of the second half. After shooting 44 percent in the first half, High Point made only six second-half field goals on 25 tries for 24 percent.
Wake Forest improved to 3-0. High Point fell to 1-1.
"Good teams are able to make adjustments," Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest said. "In the first half they were dribble-driving and kicking out for threes, so we had to make a little adjustment at halftime where we said ‘Listen, let's just lock on to the driver and let's stay attached to their wings so they can't drive and kick.'
"I thought we did a great job of adjusting in the second half."
The Panthers, in their first season with Scott Cherry as head coach, forced the Deacons' hand by drilling seven of their first 10 3-point attempts on the way to a 24-15 lead in the first 8½ minutes. Harris, in only his third college game, was wondering when the barrage would stop.
"We didn't come out ready to play," Harris said. "They came out ready to play, having something to prove. In the second half Coach got on us and told us to get back to the basics and not help so much.
"I was a little nervous."
Smith compared High Point's dribble-and-dish offensive strategies to what he has seen in the past from Duke.
"I think we did a great job of kind of weathering the storm," Smith said. "I know everybody was sitting on their hands and saying ‘Wow, what are the Deacs doing, what's going on?'
"But I think we did a great job. We needed that adversity.
"We stayed calm and we battled back."
Foul trouble caught up with the Panthers, as did the Deacons' defensive effort on High Point's leading scorer, Nick Barbour. Coming off a 38-point performance against UNC Pembroke during which he hit 10 3-pointers on 11 tries, Barbour led the Panthers again with 15 points.
But he made just four of 15 from the floor and scored seven points in the final four minutes after the Deacons had salted the game away. L.D. Williams, a physical 6-4 senior, guarded Barbour most of the game.
"He scored 15, and I'll take that going into the game," Gaudio said. "It's funny, every game we have, when we put on the screen their best player and (how) he did this and he did that, it's L.D. And he usually rises up to the challenge."
The Deacons trailed by six with 5½ minutes left in the first half before outscoring the Panthers 11-4 for a 42-39 halftime lead. High Point then managed to score on just three of their first 25 possessions of the second half.
And the Panthers rarely got more than one shot as the Deacons dominated 42-28 on the backboards.
"I thought the first half we came out and executed our game plan to the best of our ability," Cherry said. "Down three going into the half, we knew it was going to be hard coming out in the second half with their size.
"I give Wake a lot of credit. They're a tremendous basketball team. They've got some guys who can really score the ball.
"They get it up on the rim and if they don't score they go get it a second and third time."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
HPU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts
Law 21 1-4 1-2 2-6 1 5 3
Daniels 20 2-3 0-0 0-3 0 4 4
Barbour 24 4-15 4-4 1-4 2 4 15
Cox 25 2-6 1-2 0-2 2 4 6
Harris 27 5-15 0-0 0-2 2 1 13
Stroman 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Singleton 18 1-3 0-0 1-3 0 3 2
Hall 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Campbell 21 1-2 2-2 1-3 1 2 5
Simms 15 1-2 2-2 0-0 3 0 4
Bridges 27 3-7 1-2 2-3 0 2 8
Totals 200 20-57 11-14 8-28 11 25 60
Percentages: FG .351, FT .786. 3-Point Goals: 9-23, .391 (Barbour 3-8, Harris 3-9, Bridges 1-1, Campbell 1-2, Cox 1-2, Simms 0-1). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 6 (Daniels 5, Law). Turnovers: 22 (Harris 5, Cox 4, Barbour 3, Simms 3, Law 3, Daniels 2, Singleton 2). Steals: 7 (Singleton 3, Harris 2, Simms, Barbour). Technical Fouls: None.
WFU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts
Aminu 27 8-10 6-7 3-10 3 2 22
Woods 17 3-6 3-4 1-1 0 1 9
McFarland 24 3-6 5-8 3-12 2 2 11
Smith 30 4-7 5-6 0-5 5 0 13
Williams 31 1-4 4-4 1-3 3 2 6
Harris 16 5-6 2-3 0-0 2 5 12
Stewart 20 3-7 0-0 0-1 0 2 7
Tucker 7 0-2 0-0 0-2 1 3 0
Bolton 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Fowler 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Walker 4 0-0 2-2 0-0 0 0 2
Godwin 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Ingle 2 0-0 0-0 1-1 0 0 0
Weaver 18 0-3 1-2 1-6 0 0 1
Keenan 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Totals 200 27-52 28-36 10-42 16 17 83
Percentages: FG .519, FT .778. 3-Point Goals: 1-5, .200 (Stewart 1-1, Williams 0-1, Aminu 0-1, Tucker 0-2). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 3 (McFarland, Woods, Aminu). Turnovers: 18 (Woods 3, Smith 3, Williams 2, Weaver 2, Aminu 2, Stewart 2, Harris, Tucker, McFarland, Ingle). Steals: 13 (Williams 4, Stewart 2, Harris 2, Smith 2, Bolton, McFarland, Aminu). Technical Fouls: None.
High Point 39 21 -- 60
Wake Forest 42 41 -- 83
A--9,344
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