One of the ACC's traditional powers and a league upstart will square off when the Wake Forest Demon Deacons travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Pitt Panthers. Wake Forest is 14-6 on the season with a 6-3 record in conference play. The Panthers, meanwhile, are 13-7 overall and also 6-3 in ACC play thus far. The opening tap is scheduled for 7:00 pm EST.
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Last season, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons returned to form with a 25-win season and trip to the NCAA Tournament. This season, it appears that Wake has the look of a team that wants to get back to the NCAA Tournament with 14 wins overall and a 6-3 mark in the highly competitive ACC. After winning four straight games, including a win over #19 Clemson, the Deacons were dropped by #10 Virginia at home by a score of 76-67. Damari Monanto led the way for Wake with a career-high 25 points and Cameron Hildreth added 16 points and seven rebounds.
“This is the thing, we're not even halfway through the ACC yet. We gotta go to Pitt, and then we're only at the halfway point. Our fight was tremendous. We played really good defense in the second half, but didn't play very good defense in the first half and that's why the score was what it was. We felt pretty good at halftime, only being down 10. We went plus-nine in the last five minutes, that kind of got us back in it. We came out in the second half plus-four. We had the game going like we wanted it to go, but timely shots hurt us. McKneely is a good player. Vander Plas is a hard matchup, he's an inside-outside player, and they made some big timely threes.” said head coach Steve Forbes.
Get out and RUN??@Klintman14 #GoDeacs ???? pic.twitter.com/oCyTizcI11
— Wake Forest Men's Basketball (@WakeMBB) January 21, 2023
Wake has done most of its damage on the offensive end this season. The Demon Deacons are ranked 39th in scoring offense per game. The team is also 40th in the country in field goal percentage and an even more impressive 28th in 3pt field goal percentage. Wake has also done a good job at protecting the basketball, ranked 57th in the country in fewest turnovers per game. The Deacons are 233rd in the country in scoring defense this season. They are 178th in opponent's field goal percentage and 170th in 3pt defense. Wake Forest is ranked 190th in the nation in total rebounding.