Tony Bennett’s Wahoos traveled to Winston Salem Saturday to play the only winless team in the ACC, and the Hoos came up just short losing to Wake Forest 76-71 .
The Hoos have now lost five of their last six games.
Assane Sene scored a career-high for Virginia as he pitched-in fifteen and grabbed thirteen rebounds. Sene was credited with a double-double, the first of his career.
Going into the game if I had thought Virginia would have five guys score in double-figures Saturday, well then I would have certainly said that the Hoos would have won the game, but the Hoos did just that and still lost.
Virginia (11-10, 2-5) was up by ten points with 12:35 to play in the second-half, but the Wahoos sloppy play, bad shot selection, missed easy baskets, and Wake’s never say die attitude brought the Demon Deacons back to give their first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik his first-ever ACC win.
Wake (8-13, 1-5) had six-players score more than ten-points, and was led by sophomore C.J. Harris who was a perfect 10-10 at the line, but he had a off-shooting night hitting only 2/8 shots for fifteen points.
Virginia was 8/20 from three-point-land for 40%, and they only attempted fourteen free-throws missing as many as they made (7/14). The Hoos also out-rebounded Wake 31-27.
Missed shots from the charity-stripe, and major breakdowns defensively (both on the perimiter and under the basket) doomed the undermanned Hoos.
Jontel Evans played well in the loss as he scored ten points on 5/6 shooting, and he only committed one turnover from his point guard position.
Richmond native and freshman Travis McKie (12 points), in his first game against the Hoos also played well for Wake.
Coach Tony Bennett’s rebuilding effort continues Wednesday night as Clemson (15-6) comes to town for a nine o’clock game at the JPJ. Clemson is coming off a huge upset of ACC-unbeaten foe Florida State (15-6) Saturday afternoon at home. Clemson held FSU to only 44 points in the win.