Deacs Overcome 16-point Deficit to Down Pitt, 69-65 - Wake Forest University Athletics (original) (raw)

1/4/2020 2:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball

PITTSBURGH- Wake Forest men's basketball overcame a 16-point first half deficit to defeat Pitt 69-65 inside the Petersen Events Center on Saturday afternoon. Freshman Ismael Massud led the Deacons with a career-high 14 points, his first double-figure game of his career.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Pitt (10-4, 1-2 ACC) delivered a 14-2 run and took a 17-6 lead through nine minutes of action forcing Wake to burn an early timeout. Chaundee Brown snapped a three and a half minute scoring drought with a jumper, but the Panthers held on to a 22-8 advantage.

Shots slowly starting falling as the Deacs worked off the rust, pulling within eight heading into the final media timeout of the opening half. Wake (8-5, 1-2 ACC) cut the deficit to five following a 6-0 run with under two minutes remaining in the frame. The Deacs held Pitt without a basket for nearly four and a half minutes and Massoud connected on a triple with 21 seconds in the first half, pulling Wake within three.

Pitt's Ryan Murphy posted double-figures early, reaching 12 points in the first half, while Brown led the Demon Deacons with eight first half points.

Andrien White tied the game with a three to open the second half and Childress hit his first three of the night to give Wake a 35-33 lead, its first lead since the opening minutes of the first frame. Pitt regained a narrow lead, but Torry Johnson put Wake back in front 43-42 converting on an And-1.

Back-to-back threes from Massoud gave way to a 55-49 lead for the Demon Deacons with under 10 minutes to play. The Panthers strung together a 8-0 run to tie the contest 59-all with 5:13 on the clock.

Pitt missed a go-ahead jumper and Wake grabbed the rebound, drawing a foul with just six seconds on the clock. Mucius hit one of two handing Wake a narrow two point lead. A layup from Trey McGowens was blocked by Olivier Sarr and Childress was sent to the charity stripe with 0.8 seconds on the clock, hitting both to seal the victory for the Deacs.

NOTEWORTHY

• Wake overcame its largest deficit of the season after trailing 22-6 in the first half. It was the largest deficit overcome to win since facing a 19-point deficit against Pitt in 2017 at home.
• The Deacs have now won the last four meetings against the Panthers, their longest active win streak against an ACC foe.
• Childress is just two three's shy of tying C.J. Harris (162) for ninth all-time in Wake Forest history in three-pointers made.
• Massoud was Wake's leading scorer for the first time in his career.

QUOTABLE
"I thought this was a typical ACC game in the sense that the home team gets off to a really good start," head coach Danny Manning said. "We were down 16 early and I thought we continued to just chip away and keep finding ways to get back in the game. Our zone was really good for us... our focus coming in was trying to stay in front of Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens. Those two are dynamic players and we also wanted to contest shots and rebound the basketball. We did a much better job of rebounding the basketball."

UP NEXT

Wake Forest will return home to host Florida State on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 7:30.