Wake Forest Falls in Back-and-Forth Battle in Second Round of the NIT
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The Wake Forest Demon Deacons' season officially came to a screeching end today as the Deacs fell to the Illinois State Red Birds in a back-and-forth battle in the second round of the NIT.
The Deacs had a nine-point lead in the second half, but the Red Birds got hot at the right time. They scored on 11 of their final 14 possessions to close out the victory with a game-winning three-pointer with less than two seconds remaining. Let's take a deeper dive into how it happened.
1st Half Highlights
The Demon Deacons used sharp offensive ball movement to get off to a fast start. They were finding open shooters, including Juke Harris, who had an early five points. This allowed the Deacs to build an early 10-3 advantage.
A put-back dunk by Juke Harris forced Illinois State to call a timeout with 9:15 to go in the half. This basket gave the Deacs a 20-11 advantage. Tre'Von Spillers, who had already scored eight points, was then forced to exit the game with two fouls. This allowed Illinois State to go on a run and cut the deficit the game by the 6:30 mark of the first half.
The Deacs were getting good looks offensively, but had so many shots going in and out. Illinois State jumped in front around the five-minute mark. At the two-minute point, the Deacs were trailing by three and needed a good end to the half. They were able to bring things back to even at 32-32 going into halftime.
Offensively, Juke Harris and Tre'Von Spillers each had 10 points. Mekhi Mason also hit a huge three with under two minutes to play in the half to bring things back to even. Still, though, the Deacs went into the locker room looking for more offensive firepower in the second half.
2nd Half Highlights
The Deacs started better offensively coming out of the break. Tre'Von Spillers continued to establish himself as the aggressor on the inside. Nate Calmese finally scored his first basket around the 16-minute mark on a floater. At the under-16 media timeout, Wake Forest had a three-point lead.
The Deacs continued to up the charge. Around the 12-minute mark, an Isaac Carr offensive rebound led to a Myles Colvin corner three. After another Colvin driving bucket, Wake had themselves a nine-point lead.
The Red Hawks would not go away that easily, though. Johnny Kinziger got hot from three-point range, causing Steve Forbes to have to burn a timeout with the lead trimmed to just four with 8:22 to play in the game.
The Red Birds pulled ahead thanks to back-to-back threes with under six minutes to play. That put all the pressure on Wake to respond. That's exactly what Isaac Carr did. Out of the timeout, he had a driving basket and then a steal, leading to Omaha Biliew's free throws to pull ahead.
Out of the final media timeout, the Red Hawks pulled back in front. Juke Harris' driving bucket with under two minutes left tied it up. Johnny Kinzinger hit a deep three with 1.7 seconds remaining, giving the Red Birds the go-ahead basket with less than two seconds to play. That proved to be the decider.
Juke Harris finished with 20 in what could be his last game as a Demon Deacon. Tre'Von Spillers had 24 in his final game. Myles Colvin had 10, and Omaha Biliew chipped in with 11. This officially ends the season for the Deacs as we will transition into offseason content.
Justin is a student at Wake Forest University. He is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and aspiring finance major interested everything sports. In his freshman year, Justin completed an internship with the Wake Forest Ticketing Department where he gained some valuable insight into the sales and operations aspects of collegiate athletics. Before working with Wake Forest On SI, Justin was a contributing writer for Wake Forest’s student publication The Old Gold and Black. Currently, Justin serves as a student manager on the Wake Forest Men’s Tennis team. In his free time Justin enjoys spending time with his family and friends on the golf course and traveling.