Deacons end skid: Senior Night brings burst of confidence

Wake Forest lightened the load it will carry into the ACC Tournament yesterday by jettisoning the dead weight of a four-game losing streak that threatened to wreck the season.

Playing with renewed energy and passion on Senior Night, the Deacons out-raced uptempo Clemson to a 70-65 victory in front of a near-capacity crowd of 14,410. Al-Farouq Aminu had 18 points and 12 rebounds and Ish Smith contributed 17 points and seven assists as the Deacons locked up the fifth seed for the ACC Tournament and effectively bolstered their resume for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Wake Forest improved to 19-9 overall and 9-7 and will play No. 12 seed Miami at around 2:30 p.m. in Thursday's first round. Clemson, 21-9 overall, also finished 9-7 in the ACC, but drew the No. 6 seed because it lost the head-to-head component of the conference tie-breaker system.

The Tigers will play No. 11 seed N.C. State at around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday.

"I feel a sense of relief, I do," Coach Dino Gaudio of the Deacons said. "I'd be remiss if I didn't say that.

"It takes a little bit of pressure off of us, you know what I'm saying? We don't want to go into that tournament losing another one. It takes a little burden off your shoulders."

The Deacons shut down the Tigers' inside-tandem of Trevor Booker (six points, four rebounds) and Jeral Grant (eight points and six rebounds), held the Tigers to 39 percent shooting from the floor, swarmed the boards for a 44-33 rebounding advantage and scored 19 points off 17 offensive rebounds.

But they made it harder than it might have been otherwise by committing 18 turnovers (six each by Smith and Aminu), and didn't put the game away until they were able to score on their final five possessions.

Smith and Aminu hit two free throws each for a 66-60 lead that Smith extended to 68-60 with a pull-up jumper in the lane. Senior L.D. Williams then hit two out of four over the final 53.4 seconds as Clemson could claw no closer than four.

"I think we just gutted it out," Williams said. "By far it wasn't a pretty game. We just did what we needed to do to get the win, and when you get wins like that, it definitely helps your confidence. You know you're not shooting the ball overly well (42 percent from the floor) and whenever you can pull out a win when the game is sloppy that's a big confidence booster."

Coming off a 51-47 loss at Florida State in a game that was played at a half-court pace, Wake Forest benefited from Clemson's willingness to force the tempo with pressure defense and fast-break offense. That was most evident when Aminu -- who was scoreless for the first time of his career in Tallahassee -- ran the court to dunk off a pass from Smith to tie the game at 9 with 16 minutes left in the first half.

After taking two shots at FSU, Aminu made six of 15 yesterday along with six of six free throws.

"Aminu was a handful," Coach Oliver Purnell said. "He played like the player he is tonight."

Aminu said he, for one, was happy to see the Tigers' willingness to run.

"That's the game I like," Aminu said. "When I saw the first one go through the hoop, it felt good. It had been awhile since I scored. After that I was playing normal again.

"I just became frustrated and stuff. I think the losing got to me and things like that. (Yesterday) I just came out with a clear mind. It was Senior Night and I just wanted to play so hard for them. I didn't worry about myself. Once I made my first bucket, everything just came naturally."

Demontez Stitt led Clemson with 18 points and Tanner Smith scored 13, but Clemson couldn't overcome the lack of production from Booker, who leads the team with 15.6 points a game.

Booker made two of eight field-goal attempts. Although Wake Forest double-teamed Booker in the post, Gaudio gave much of the credit to Chas McFarland, who also contributed 11 points and 11 rebounds in 27 of his most effective minutes of the season.

"I told Chas after the game, I thought he was excellent," Gaudio said. "Trevor is not a good player, he's a great player. And (McFarland) plays him pretty well when he plays him."

McFarland's plan was to use his 7-0 height to alter the shots of the 6-7 Booker.

"He's really skilled," McFarland said of Booker. "He just has trouble scoring over the top of people sometimes.

"Coach told me to stay between him and the basket. He missed some easy ones that he usually makes, so I you could say I got lucky on a couple of them.

DCollins@wsjournal.com.


727-7323

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

Potter 27 4-9 0-0 1-3 0 2 11

TBooker 32 2-8 2-4 3-4 4 2 6

Grant 26 3-7 2-5 3-6 0 2 8

Stitt 28 6-12 6-8 1-4 1 4 18

Smith 28 5-13 2-2 1-4 0 3 13

Johnson 12 2-2 0-0 1-2 0 1 4

Young 30 2-9 0-0 1-2 2 1 5

Jennings 8 0-1 0-0 1-3 2 4 0

DBooker 7 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 1 0

Hill 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Totals 200 24-62 12-19 14-33 9 20 65

Percentages: FG .387, FT .632. 3-Point Goals: 5-25, .200 (Potter 3-6, Young 1-7, Smith 1-7, Stitt 0-5). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 3 (Grant 2, Smith). Turnovers: 14 (Young 4, T.Booker 3, Smith 3, Potter 2, Johnson, Stitt). Steals: 10 (Grant 3, Jennings 2, Johnson, D.Booker, Smith, Stitt, Young). Technical Fouls: None.

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

Aminu 33 6-15 6-6 4-12 1 0 18

Weaver 11 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 2

McFarland 27 4-5 3-5 6-11 0 5 11

Smith 39 7-15 3-3 2-6 7 2 17

Williams 33 1-8 2-4 2-2 2 4 4

Clark 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Harris 33 5-9 2-2 0-2 1 2 14

Stewart 11 0-2 0-0 0-2 0 3 0

Woods 11 1-3 2-2 2-3 0 4 4

Totals 200 25-59 18-22 17-44 11 20 70

Percentages: FG .424, FT .818. 3-Point Goals: 2-10, .200 (Harris 2-5, Williams 0-1, Stewart 0-2, Aminu 0-2). Team Rebounds: 5. Blocked Shots: 2 (McFarland 2). Turnovers: 18 (Aminu 6, Smith 6, Williams 3, McFarland 2, Harris). Steals: 11 (Harris 5, Smith 2, Aminu 2, McFarland, Stewart). Technical Fouls: None.

Clemson 29 36 -- 65


Wake Forest 31 39 -- 70

A--14,410.