Wake Forest squanders 20-point lead in 72-70 loss to LSU
After leading by as many as 20 in the first half, Wake Forest fell in heartbreaking fashion to LSU 72-70. With the game tied at 70 and under 20 seconds to play, LSU guard Justice Hill drove to the basket and converted an open layup to put the Tigers ahead for good. Tyree Appleby finished with 26 points and six assists on 11/13 shooting in the loss.
The Deacs have now lost consecutive contests where they led by at least seven points at half. They have been outscored by a total of 37 points in the second periods of their last two games. In this one, the collapse began before the first half was finished.
“It didn’t start in the second half, it started in the first half,” Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said. “The last four minutes of the first half, we turned the ball over, we took bad shots, we quit defending. They had momentum going in at halftime. They made some big shots and we didn’t. We still had chances to win the game, but we have to step up and make shots.”
Forbes added that the team’s preparation may have played a factor in the lackluster second half performance.
“This is kind of emblematic of how we practiced, to be honest,” Forbes said. “We’re a really good team in practice for about an hour and 15 minutes and then don’t finish practice very well. That’s the way our last two practices have been.”
Though the Deacs were able to shut down one of LSU’s top scoring threats in Adam Miller (3 points, 1/10 FGs), Wake Forest had no answers on defense for forward KJ Williams. Andrew Carr fouled out with four minutes remaining and neither Zach Keller nor Matthew Marsh could provide a lasting solution. Williams finished the game with a monster statline of 35 points and 10 rebounds on 14/21 shooting and 7/9 from behind the arc.
“We did a great job on [Adam] Miller,” Forbes said. “We played him full deny, which causes some problems on the pick and pop with [KJ Williams]. We knew it would, and then we couldn’t stop the pop. Then we started switching, which is the only thing you can do with that and then they drove our bigs. And so it put us through a tough situation. We took a little away, but give them a lot of credit.”
Turnovers were a problem for the team once again — they coughed the ball up 15 times compared to LSU’s seven. Cleaning up that area of the game comes back to avoiding simple mistakes.
“You’ve got to take care of the ball,” Forbes said. “Make the easy play. Quit trying to hit home runs. We had several times we just didn’t deliver the pass. [You] just can’t do it, especially with this team, because there’s not a large margin for error with this group right now. We can’t make those kinds of plays.”
After two disheartening defeats, it will be easy for the team’s morale to take a dip. The coming weeks of practice and games will be critical as the Deacs dive headlong into the gauntlet of ACC play.
“That’s where I gotta do a good job of teaching and motivating,” Forbes said. “I was more positive tonight than last week. You know, just because they are younger. I thought it was a great moment, today at halftime at halftime, obviously I wanted to be up by more. But I told them we were just in this situation last Friday night, let’s go learn from it and win the game. We just didn’t string enough great possessions to beat them.”
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