The Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will play Saturday at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center. Tip-off from South Bend, IN, is at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Wake Forest, 14-9 SU and 13-10 ATS, was defeated by Duke on Tuesday. The Demon Deacons are 1-4 in their past five and 6-6 in Atlantic Coast Conference competition.
Notre Dame, 10-12 SU and 6-16 ATS, beat Louisville on Saturday. The Irish are 1-4 in their past five and 2-9 in ACC play.
Wake Forest defeated Notre Dame 79-74 last season. The Fighting Irish are 8-6 all-time versus the Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest was 6-2 in ACC play, forcing its way into the conference's top tier. Following four straight losses, the Demon Deacons are now in a sixth-place tie. However, with eight regular-season games left, there's still time for the Deacs to right the ship.
Wake Forest rallied late but couldn't pull off a road win at Duke in its last game. The Demon Deacons shot 37.5 percent from the field, while the Blue Devils hit 50 percent of their field goals. Duke won the rebounding battle 39-32 but kept Wake in the game with 14 turnovers and 20 fouls.
“Attitude determines your Altitude.”#GoDeacs ?? pic.twitter.com/SgiZufpdW4
— Wake Forest Men's Basketball (@WakeMBB) February 1, 2023
The Demon Deacons average 77.2 points per game (57th) on 46.3 percent shooting (78th), including 36.8 percent from three (50th). They convert 74.2 percent of their free-throw attempts (73rd) and average 31.2 rebounds (226th) with a -0.7 rebounding margin. Wake Forest is 27th nationally in schedule-adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom.
Senior guard Tyree Appleby leads the Deacs, averaging 18.1 points and 6.0 assists per game. Other players to watch are sophomore guard Cameron Hildreth (13.1 PPG and 6.1 RPG), junior guard Damari Monsanto (13.0 PPG, 40.0 3PT%), and junior forward Andrew Carr (11.9 PPG and 6.3 RPG).
Wake Forest surrenders 73.1 points per game (280th), and its opponents shoot 44.3 percent from the field (244th), including 35.0 percent from three (262nd). It's 164th in adjusted defensive efficiency, 92nd in adjusted tempo, and 111th in assist-per-turnover ratio.
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