Willed to Victory: Smith rescues Deacs in 20T thriller with 28

Nobody who ever lived hated to lose worse than Skip Prosser.

But judging from the way that Ish Smith played in Wake Forest's 96-92 overtime win over Xavier yesterday, he might be a close second.

"I just always wanted to be somebody who hates to lose, but has what it takes to win," Smith said.

Playing the best 49 minutes of his college career, Smith willed the Deacons to victory in front of 14,148 at Joel Coliseum in the first game of the 10-year Skip Prosser Classic, named for the man who made an indelible mark as coach for both programs.

Al-Farouq Aminu survived foul trouble to score 26 points (tying his career high), pull down 18 rebounds and block three shots for the Deacons (11-2), and Xavier (8-5) got career-high scoring totals from Jordan Crawford (30 points) and reserve Jamel McLean (21).

But there seemed to be little doubt in anyone's mind who decided a game that was as fun for the fans as it was utter misery for Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest and Coach Chris Mack of Xavier -- both of whom said they owe their careers to Prosser.

Smith hit a clutch 3-pointer to help the Deacons rally from a four-point deficit late in regulation, hit another 3-pointer to tie the game at 85 with 26 seconds left in the first overtime and scored 12 of Wake Forest's final 24 points. He finished 28 points -- nine more than his previous career-high -- to go with nine assists, four rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

"Man is Ish Smith good?" Mack said. "He was the absolute difference in the game tonight.

"I tried to recruit him to Xavier because Wake Forest was waffling for a long time. That tricky Coach Prosser got me. He decided to take him at the end. "

Mack got no argument from Gaudio.

"What a game Ish Smith had," Gaudio said. "Just terrific. Just terrific. I don't think he's ever played a better game.

"The whole second half we were just trying to get the ball in his hands. We ran a 152 ball screens from different angles and different sides. He's really good off that. He's really good."

And L.D. Williams of the Deacons saw the same game from the court until fouling out with 30 seconds remaining in regulation.

"Obviously, in college this is the best game he's ever played," Williams said. "I just looked in his face and I was like, ‘He's not going to let us lose.' He put the Deacs on his back."

To finally subdue the Musketeers of the Atlantic 10, the Deacons had to overcome an abysmal game at the foul line where they made 24 of 43 free throws -- including two misses on the front-end of one-and-ones. They also had to recover after getting trounced 26-16 on the backboards in the first half, and managed to do well enough to finish the game with as many rebounds (50) as Xavier.

Perhaps most of all they had to handle the emotions of what the players described as easily the most intense game of the season -- one that resulted in technical fouls called against Williams and Chas McFarland of the Deacons and Associate Head Coach Pat Kelsey of Xavier, who left Wake Forest to return to his alma mater before the season.

"Not to take anything away from those guys at the X, but I told the guys that none of those guys in blue played for Coach Prosser except the coaches," Williams said. "It can't mean more to them than it means to us.

"We knew who coach was in practice. We knew how he was off the court. We knew he was more than a coach to us."

Xavier, battling back from a 59-49 second-half deficit, appeared in control after Crawford's jumper over Williams provided a 76-72 lead with two minutes remaining in regulation. But Smith, who had made four 3-pointers on 24 attempts this year, drained one from the right wing with a minute and a half to go and Wake Forest took a 78-76 lead on Williams' three-point play.

"I've always been a player where you can't put numbers on the way I play," Smith said. "Ever since I've been here, people would say, ‘He can't do this, he can't do that, he can't do this, he can't do that.'

"But I've always been somebody who takes big shots and hopefully makes big shots. (Last night) exemplified that, and it was a big win."

After Terrell Holloway tied the game on a driving basket, and Williams fouled out charging into Mark Lyons, Crawford took a fall-away jumper from the left wing at the buzzer that came up short. Smith contested the shot.

The Musketeers led 85-82 late in the second overtime until Smith drained another 3-pointer from the right wing with 26 seconds left. McFarland blocked a layup attempt by Holloway to send the game into a second overtime.

The Deacons finally got traction by holding Xavier to one free throw over four crucial possessions of the second overtime. Smith's jumper from the right baseline put Wake Forest ahead to stay at 91-89, C.J. Harris scored a layup off an assist from Smith, and a free throw by Aminu extended the lead to 94-90 with 1:37 remaining.

Harris sealed the victory with two free throws with 2.6 seconds left.

"It's going to be like that ever year from here on out," Williams said. "That's how the series is."

dcollins@wsjournal.com.



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XAV. Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Love 18 3-6 0-0 2-6 0 5 6

Frease 32 3-6 2-2 1-5 1 3 8

Lyons 20 4-11 0-0 1-6 0 5 9

Holloway 45 3-17 6-6 1-2 3 2 13

Crawford 43 11-25 6-10 1-6 4 3 30

Redford 17 1-5 0-0 0-1 0 0 3

Taylor 14 1-3 0-0 5-6 0 3 2

McLean 38 6-10 9-12 4-10 0 4 21

Jackson 23 0-3 0-0 2-5 3 4 0

Totals 250 32-86 23-30 20-50 11 29 92

Percentages: FG .372, FT .767. 3-Point Goals: 5-23, .217 (Crawford 2-8, Lyons 1-1, Redford 1-5, Holloway 1-7, Jackson 0-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 3 (Love 2, Frease).

Turnovers: 16 (Frease 3, Holloway 3, Crawford 3, McLean 2, Jackson 2, Taylor, Lyons). Steals: 12 (Crawford 4, Lyons 3, Redford, Holloway, Jackson, McLean, Frease). Technical Fouls: Bench.

WFU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Aminu 41 11-19 4-10 5-18 2 4 26

Weaver 18 1-3 2-2 1-2 0 2 4

Smith 49 10-14 5-9 1-4 9 3 28

Harris 42 4-8 7-8 0-3 1 0 15

Williams 28 4-8 2-8 3-4 0 5 10

Clark 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

McFrland 28 0-5 4-6 4-14 0 5 4

Stewart 27 3-6 0-0 0-4 0 4 7

Woods 8 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 2 2

Totals 250 34-66 24-43 14-50 12 25 96

Percentages: FG .515, FT .558. 3-Point Goals: 4-10, .400 (Smith 3-3, Stewart 1-1, Weaver 0-1, Williams 0-1, Harris 0-2, Aminu 0-2). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 10 (Smith 3, Aminu 3, Weaver 2, McFarland 2). Turnovers: 19 (Williams 4, Smith 4, Aminu 3, McFarland 3, Woods 2, Stewart 2, Weaver). Steals: 9 (Williams 2, Aminu 2, Harris, Woods, Smith, McFarland, Clark).

Technical Fouls: McFarland, Williams.

Xavier 43 35 7 7 -- 92


Wake Forest 41 37 7 11 -- 96

A--14,148.