WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.
Over the first six games of the college-basketball season, Wake Forest has appeared far more rough-hewn than one might expect from a team with three seniors -- Ish Smith, L.D. Williams and Chas McFarland -- who have 221 career starts among them.
And any team as rough-hewn as the Deacons were in Tuesday night's 69-58 loss to No. 4 Purdue is not, by definition, going to have a smooth finish.
"We've got to finish ballgames," sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu said. "That's what it comes down to."
The Deacons outplayed the Boilermakers in the first half, turning their advantages in size and quickness into a 31-29 halftime lead.
Smith got to the rim virtually at will. Williams put the defensive clamps on leading scorer E'Twaun Moore. And McFarland blocked three shots, forcing the Purdue offense to the perimeter.
Wake Forest would have been in a more commanding position if it hadn't missed three of 10 first-half free throws.
But any shot at a huge early-season upset splintered in the second half under the stress of turnovers and incessant fouls. Both fueled the Boilermakers' lethargic offense and left the Deacons to wonder what might have been.
"We've got to sustain what we do from beginning to end," Williams said. "We're right there, we're right there, we're right there, and a couple of big plays happen and we kind of lose our edge.
"Like Coach told us, ‘We're going to face adversity in every game we play in.' It seems like the last two games when we hit that adversity, we go the opposite way from how we're supposed to."
The challenge for Wake Forest -- after only its second loss in 10 ACC/Big Ten Challenge games -- will be to clean up its act in time for Saturday's game at formidable Gonzaga. The Deacons, who lost to William & Mary 78-68 on Saturday, will carry a two-game losing streak and 4-2 record west.
To stop the skid, the Deacons will need a return to form by Aminu, a skilled 6-9 forward who has had 11 turnovers and only seven field goals (on 29 attempts) in the last two games. They'll also have to protect the ball better that they did in the second half against Purdue -- when they made 17 turnovers -- and take better advantage of their free-throw opportunities.
"It hurts because we know how good a team we are," Williams said. "Yeah, we slipped up against William & Mary last week. But we know we're a good team. And for the most part, for about 25-30 minutes (against Purdue) we proved that.
"A lot of it is just finishing what we start."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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