Sports > February 7, 2008

By Ryan Durham | Senior writer

The Demon Deacons suffered their second heartbreaking loss Feb. 6 falling 89-83 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. This loss came only days after Wake Forest suffered defeat at the buzzer on the road at N.C. State.

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Sophomore Chas McFarland dribbles the ball during the 89-83 loss to Georgia Tech. (Jeff Merski/Old Gold & Black)

The Demon Deacons suffered their second heartbreaking loss Feb. 6 falling 89-83 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. This loss came only days after Wake Forest suffered defeat at the buzzer on the road at N.C. State.

Despite a relatively slow start the game heated up with nine minutes left in the half. An intentional foul by Tech’s Matt Causey and a subsequent technical foul on freshman Jeff Teague were the harbinger of an extremely physical half. The Deacons committed 12 fouls in the first half and Tech had nine of their own.

Despite the spat Wake Forest controlled the tempo of the first half taking the lead three minutes in and not relinquishing it for the rest of the first half.

Teague’s foul trouble did not hinder his performance in the first half, recording 12 of his 19 points on the night. This performance helped Wake Forest gain an eight-point halftime lead.The Deacons came out of the locker room strong increasing their halftime lead to 12 points with 13:49 left on the clock, but the Yellow Jackets refused to let this hinder their attack. Going on a 14-0 run, Georgia Tech took the lead away from the Deacons and began an effort to pull away with 11:03 left in the half.

From this point the two teams battled under the basket and tied the game five times before the Yellow Jackets took the lead off a three-point shot by Anthony Morrow which would seal the Deacons fate. Teague’s 19 points lead the Deacons in scoring followed closely by the 18 points of sophomore Harvey Hale.

However, the real stats of the game were negative for the Deacs. They had a total of 20 turnovers, including five by Teague and six from sophomore guard Ishmael Smith, and 24 personal fouls which hurt the team in the final minutes of the game.

“I think the game was a little more physical than we were used to,” Head Coach Dino Gaudio said. “Our defense was poor this evening and when we needed stops we didn’t get them.”

Before their loss to Georgia Tech the Deacs traveled to N.C. State to try and gain their first ACC road win of the season. Wake Forest jumped out to a quick lead, out scoring the Wolfpack 10-5 in the first four minutes of the game.

The Deacs extended their lead to as many as nine points in the first half and went into the locker room with a seven-point lead in the low-scoring game.

Smith was a large part of Wake Forest’s first half lead. He scored 10 points and had 5 rebounds in the first half.

Teague also came up big for the Deacs with nine points and three steals.

The Deacons’ defense was strong in the first half, keeping the Wolfpack at only 30 percent shooting from the field and 18.2 percent from behind the arc.

Wake Forest, on the other hand, shot 40 percent from behind the arc and 35.3 percent overall.

The chances of a Deacon road win looked good for most of the first half. Wake Forest continued to keep N.C. State at arm’s length for most of the half, but foul trouble for both sophomore center Chas McFarland and especially Teague hurt the Deacons down the stretch.

“Jeff (Teague)’s situation hurt us,” Gaudio said. “He was shooting the ball really well when he got his fourth foul with about 10 minutes to play and we had to sit him down. Having him on the bench hurt us.”

With 2:56 left in the game, N.C. State managed their first lead of the game off a dunk by J.J. Hickson.

The Wolfpack was able to increase their lead to three points.

With only a few seconds left in the game, Smith hit yet another clutch jumper to tie the score at 65-65.

It looked as though the game would go into overtime, but the Wolfpack’s Ben McCauley missed a three-point attempt off the rim and tipped it into the basket as time expired to give N.C. State the win.

Overall, Teague lead the team with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists, but it was not enough to give Wake Forest the win.

The Deacs next play host to Virginia Feb. 9 and currently sit at 13-8 and 3-5 in the ACC.

“I’m disappointed we lost,” Gaudio said. “But now we have to bounce back Saturday against UVA.”