Wake Forest Falls at Notre Dame, 90-80 - Wake Forest University Athletics (original) (raw)
1/29/2020 9:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Wake Forest's second half rally came up short, falling at Notre Dame 90-80 on Wednesday night at Purcell Pavilion. The Demon Deacons fell to 9-11 overall (2-8 ACC) with the loss, while the Fighting Irish improve to 12-8 (3-6 ACC).
Brandon Childress led Wake Forest with 24 points, his fifth 20-point game of the season and the 11th of his career. Olivier Sarr added 18 points and Isaiah Mucius scored 13 for the Deacs.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After Notre Dame scored the opening basket of the game, the Deacons used a 9-0 run to take an early 9-2 lead. Mucius came off the bench and scored nine straight points for the Deacs as they led 21-17 at the midway point of the half. The Irish took advantage of foul trouble for three of the Wake starters to cut the lead to one before the Deacs took a five-point lead into the break, 41-36. Childress had 16 first-half points to lead Wake to the halftime lead.
Notre Dame retook the lead early in the second half and pushed the advantage to 54-46 with an 11-1 run. The Irish led by as many as 12 before the Deacs rallied late in the game, cutting the lead to three at 77-74 with 3:40 to play. That was as close as the Deacons would get as the Irish sealed the game at the line.
NOTEWORTHY
- Brandon Childress moved up to 32nd in career scoring at Wake Forest with 1,246 points, passing Paul Long (1,225) and Jackie Murdock (1,239)
- Olivier Sarr had his 15th double figure scoring game of the season, including his 14th double figure performance in the last 15 games
- Brandon Childress (injury) and Sharone Wright, Jr. (family matter) returned to action after missing the Virginia game
- Chaundee Brown, the Deacs' second leading scorer and rebounder missed his seventh consecutive game due to a lower leg injury
QUOTABLE
"The ballgame today was a tale of two halves. The first half offensively we were very efficient and did some pretty good things. The second half, not so much," head coach Danny Manning said. "The shooting percentage was pretty much flipped in the second half in regards to field goals. We knew going into the game that Notre Dame is a team that shoots a lot of threes and they shoot them at a high clip and they are very efficient. They hit us with 10 threes."
UP NEXT
Wake Forest returns home to host Clemson on Saturday night. Game time at LJVM Coliseum is 8 p.m. and the game will air on ACC Network.