Deacs try to sweep Cavs

Wake Forest is hoping to beat Virginia, along with the predicted winter weather

By: By Dan Collins | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: February 06, 2010

Wake Forest made it to Charlottesville on Thursday night safe and sound, but getting home from today's snow-marred game against Virginia will be harder.

And getting home with a win will be harder still.

"Every team in the ACC is better at home than away," senior Ish Smith of the Deacons said. "So obviously they're going to give us a very competitive game."

With as much as 28 inches of snow expected in central Virginia this weekend, just getting the game played at John Paul Jones Arena (noon, WFMY Ch. 9) will be a significant accomplishment. But the reward for Wake Forest's efforts could be great.

By winning, the Deacons would improve to 16-5 overall and 6-3 in the ACC with four of their final seven conference games scheduled for Winston-Salem. It would also sweep the season series and thus give Wake Forest a tie-breaker advantage over Virginia, which will enter the game at 14-6 overall and 5-2 in the ACC.

"As we know, road wins in this league are like finding gold -- for any team and for us as well," Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest said. "If we'd be fortunate enough to win, it would do wonders for us in the ACC race."

The Deacons thumped the Cavaliers 69-57 at Joel Coliseum on Jan. 23, racing out to a 24-point lead midway through the second half before fending off a comeback that sliced the lead to 10 with a minute remaining.

Smith, having his way against Virginia freshman Jontel Evans, had 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and the Deacons shot 52 percent from the floor -- a season-high against ACC competition.

The Cavaliers shot 34 percent from the floor.

"Toward the end of the game, I think we kind of took our (foot) off the pedal," Smith said. "They're going to remember that.

"It's never easy to beat a team twice, but you've got to do what you've got to do."

Sylven Landesberg, the Cavaliers leading scorer with 17.6 points a game, was whistled for two fouls in the first 7½ minutes of last month's game against Wake Forest, and played only eight minutes in the first half, when the Deacons raced to a 34-15 halftime lead.

First-year coach Tony Bennett afterward second-guessed his decision to keep Landesberg -- who, in ACC games is shooting 47 percent from the floor and 39 percent from 3-point range -- on the bench for so long.

Landesberg warmed up to score 14 of his 18 points in the second half, but the damage had been done.

"If you can take Sylven Landesberg away, that's a big thing in their offense," Gaudio said. "Now the way we took him away was, he sat on the bench with fouls. And there might be a different scenario this time.

"But I think he is the heartbeat of their team. We've got to try to do a really good job with him."

dcollins@wsjournal.com | 727-7323