Wake Forest grinds-out 62-53 victory last night over Miami

After Wake Forest's thumping last Thursday by Georgia Tech, Coach Dino Gaudio questioned the Deacons' toughness.

After Wake Forest's grind-it-out 62-53 victory last night over Miami in front of 11,241 at Joel Coliseum, senior guard Ish Smith said the Deacons had provided the answer.

"You know what, we did," Smith said. "I think we did toughen this one out.

"We toughened it out, gutted it out. That's what you've got to do when you don't play well."

Battling themselves at times as hard as they battled the Hurricanes, the Deacons managed one field goal in the final 10 minutes, shot 32 percent from the floor in the second half and 41 percent for the game and got a season-low six points from star forward Al-Farouq Aminu. They still managed to rebound from the 79-58 pasting in Atlanta by doing what they do best.

They guarded the Hurricanes at the beginning of the game, holding them to two field goals in the first 13½ minutes. And they guarded the Hurricanes at the end of the game, allowing no field goals over the final five minutes and 38 seconds.

From the time Garrius Adams' 3-pointer pulled Miami to within 55-52, the Hurricanes managed one free throw the rest of the way and didn't score a point over their final seven possessions.
"It shows that we can step up and lock a team down when we need to," freshman C.J. Harris of the Deacons said.

By doing so, the Deacons improved to 15-5 overall and 5-3 at the midway point of the ACC regular season. Miami, playing its second game in three days, fell to 16-6 and 2-6.

The Hurricanes, who ranked second in the ACC with a field-goal percentage of .476, missed 13 of their first 15 shots from the floor and all of their final eight to finish with 16 field goals on 54 attempts (30 percent). Dwayne Collins, after dominating the Deacons with 23 points and 11 rebounds last month in Miami, had as many turnovers (5) as points in the rematch.

"That's kind of been our staple all year," senior Chas McFarland said of the Deacons' defensive effort. "We lost two really great scorers from last year (Jeff Teague and James Johnson), so we know what we have to do to be successful, and that's to get stops.

"That's good for us, knowing it's something that we can do."

Befuddled by Miami's long and active zone, the Deacons didn't get much offense from anyone. Harris led Wake Forest with 12 points, but made two field goals (both 3-pointers) to go with six field goals on six attempts. Smith scored 11 to complement his six assists, but was 4 of 12 from the floor.

And the Deacons managed seven points off fast breaks and were routed 17-2 by the Hurricanes on second-chance points.

"There was no flow at all," Harris said. "If any team started getting a flow, they came out and turned it over or committed fouls back to back.

"It was an ugly game, but luckily we pulled through."

Aminu, who entered the game averaging 16.8 points, took five shots from the floor, his fewest of the season. He rarely touched the ball that he wasn't surrounded by two or three players in the Hurricanes' zone.

He took two shots in the second half.

"They were in a zone tonight so it was hard to get going," Aminu said. "The shot wasn't falling, and after a while I just tried to be more of a passer because they were crowding me and they were leaving the backside kind of open.

"When the shot's not going and they're crowding me, I've got to make the extra pass. Because if I have a lot of points and we lose, it doesn't do anybody any good."

The Deacons' best chance at an easy victory came in the first half when they built a 25-8 lead on Aminu's one field goal of the game, a dunk off an assist from Smith. But they scored one free throw on their next eight possessions and the Hurricanes, getting five points in a row from Adams, pulled to within 36-27 at halftime.

Miami then continued their protracted comeback in the second half, paring the lead to seven at 37-30, 42-35 and 44-37, to six at 46-40, to five at 48-43 and finally to three at 55-52 on Adams' 3-pointer with 5:38 remaining.

Having watched the Hurricanes score on six of the previous eight possessions, Gaudio called for a change in defensive strategy.

"As we went down to the last five minutes, we said we were going to switch all ball screens except on Collins," Gaudio said. "We had a guy on a guy."

Adrian Thomas missed a 3-pointer, Aminu blocked a shot by Adams and Harris swiped the ball from Collins inside. With 1:46 remaining, Miami began to foul the Deacons and Harris, LD. Williams and Smith hit five of six free throws to put the game away.

"It's not going to be pretty with our best player, Farouq, not playing well and obviously me not playing well at all," Smith said. "But we gutted it out and got a win."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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MIAMI
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
McGowan 17 1-2 1-2 1-4 1 2 3
Collins 23 2-4 1-2 2-2 1 3 5
Thomas 20 0-5 0-0 0-2 0 4 0
Scott 33 2-10 4-6 2-6 2 3 9
Dews 29 3-10 2-2 0-5 0 2 10
Grant 16 0-3 0-0 1-1 2 3 0
Adams 25 4-8 2-2 1-3 0 1 13
Jones 8 1-4 0-0 1-2 0 0 2
Johnson 16 2-5 4-4 2-6 1 3 8
Gamble 13 1-3 1-2 1-3 0 0 3
Totals 200 16-54 15-20 13-36 7 21 53
Percentages: FG .296, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 6-18, .333 (Adams 3-5, Dews 2-4, Scott 1-4, Thomas 0-1, McGowan 0-1, Jones 0-1, Grant 0-2). Team Rebounds: 2.Blocked Shots: 3 (Collins 2, Gamble).Turnovers: 18 (Collins 5, Scott 4, Grant 3, Dews 2, Thomas, Johnson, Jones, McGowan).Steals: 9 (Scott 2, Gamble 2, Jones, Adams, Dews, McGowan, Johnson).Technical Fouls: None.
WAKE FOREST
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Aminu 32 1-5 4-4 2-9 0 4 6
McFarland 29 3-5 3-4 0-7 1 3 9
Smith 37 4-12 2-5 0-9 6 0 11
Harris 35 2-6 6-6 0-1 2 3 12
Williams 28 1-6 5-6 1-5 1 2 7
Clark 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Stewart 14 3-5 0-0 1-2 2 2 8
Weaver 10 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 1 3
Woods 12 3-3 0-0 1-1 0 2 6
Totals 200 18-44 21-27 5-34 12 17 62
Percentages: FG .409, FT .778.3-Point Goals: 5-13, .385 (Stewart 2-4, Harris 2-5, Smith 1-1, Williams 0-1, Aminu 0-2).Team Rebounds: 0.Blocked Shots: 7 (Aminu 4, Smith 2, McFarland).
Turnovers: 16 (Smith 3, Aminu 3, Harris 2, McFarland 2, Weaver 2, Woods 2, Stewart, Williams).Steals: 7 (Smith 3, Harris 2, Aminu, McFarland).Technical Fouls: None.
Miami 27 26 — 53
Wake Forest 36 26 — 62
A—11,241.