WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest (13-16, 5-11) has been so achingly, agonizingly close all year long against good teams, and finally, the Deacs were able to pull out a win over a Pittsburgh team that had everything to play for by a final of 69-66. Pitt (19-11, 8-8) needed this one -- and likely the next two -- for its NCAA Tournament at-large hopes, but Wake head coach Danny Manning and his team are trying to build something moving forward, and this was a nice step in that direction.
Three-Point Take
1. Wake Forest pulled this game out by doing something it hadn't done well reliably all year -- closing strong
Wake had a halftime lead on Pittsburgh, but started off the second half by allowing a 17-6 run and finishing themselves in a nine-point hole with 12:55 to go.
They had played so well for 20 minutes, and then suddenly, they couldn't get a rebound or a stop and couldn't seem to find the basket on offense.
Wake clawed back to within four with 6:37 to go, but Pitt extended the lead out to seven with 5:23 remaining and it felt like that would almost be the end of that. It just felt like Wake couldn't finish a possession with a defensive rebound (Pitt rebounded 50% of its missed shots in the second half) or couldn't make a shot on the other end.
But junior point guard Codi Miller-McIntyre went on a 8-1 run against Pitt in the span of a little less than two minutes.
"For Codi, whenever he's in attack mode, whenever he's driving the ball as we say downhill, towards the basket, he's a handful. It's hard to stay in front of him. He's able to get to the rim and cause a lot of problems," Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning said.
In that stretch of time, Wake was actually able to get some defensive rebounds. Of course, Miller-McIntyre got all of them. But his younger teammates appeared to feed off him particularly after that, and the team as a whole gained confidence on both ends of the court once their leader took over. Wake was able to finish defensive possessions better after that.
"Very happy with the way our guys continued to grind, continued to battle down the stretch. We did a little bit better job in the second half guarding. They missed some shots they normally make, but their percentage did go down," Manning said. "To me, that's some type of indication that we're a little bit more locked in with attention to detail on the defensive end."
Miller-McIntyre got a steal with 3:17 to go right in front of the Wake Forest bench that he immediately took the other way. Freshman Dinos Mitoglou was a little nervous at that point.
"I thought it was a hurried shot," Mitoglou said with a grin. "Fortunately for us, he made it. So we were okay."
The game-winning shot, for all intents and purposes, came by Mitoglou with 2:42 to go -- it gave Wake a 3-point lead. Fitting that the one they call "the Greek Deac" would make that kind of a play on Greek Night.
The three came on a play where Miller-McIntyre got into the paint on a drive, and he heard Mitoglou call his name. He immediately flashed back to drills the two of them were doing together, a pick-and-roll drill where Miller-McIntyre would hit the 6-10 stretch-4 for a three-pointer.
"One of the 3's we tried was me just jogging down the court, getting into the paint and just pitching it right back to him," Miller-McIntyre said. "When I was driving, I heard him say my name and I just threw it back, just like we practiced."
But the key part of that is it came off a Miller-McIntyre drive. The Deacs have a really nice mix of veteran talent and youth, and Miller-McIntyre is a big element of that. He decided to take over late, and he did just that.
"One thing I'm good at is driving to the basket. I guess it just eventually clicked that I needed to help my teammates out a little bit more," Miller McIntyre said. "I believe I was doing well in terms of passing the ball and rebounding, but there's more areas I can help. That's one that I needed to do to help us win."
But everyone needed to keep calm, and that's exactly what they did. After the Mitoglou three-pointer, Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon -- whose team desperately needed a win for NCAA Tournament purposes -- called a timeout and the Deacs celebrated wildly with each other, yelling and chest-bumping and relishing it. It's happened against them so many times this season, why not?
"We've been in this boat before many times. It was just a matter of fighting and just wanting it more," Wake freshman Mitchell Wilbekin said. "Pitt's a good team. We knew they were going to make a run. It was just a matter of staying together and not getting flustered or anything."
2. The young Deacs continue to build for what looks to be a very bright future under Manning
Wilbekin is just one of those talented pieces for Wake Forest, but like with most freshmen -- and this team in general -- it's going to take time.
He finished with 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting (4-of-4 from three), tying a career-high in made three-pointers for the Deacs. And almost every one of those shots was needed.
But he wasn't the only one. Cornelius Hudson, a freshman wing, got some athletic and crucial rebounds down the stretch and finished with 11 points. Mitoglou was just 2-of-6 shooting but 2-of-4 from three, and one of his three's was enormous to say the least.
"I think our freshmen have done a great job all year long. You look at our stats, all three of those guys have made over 40 3's. That's pretty good when you're talking about freshmen having to step up and knock down shots on a regular basis," Manning said. "Sometimes we make them. Sometimes they don't make them. But I like their aggressiveness because they're always a threat when they're out there because they shoot them."
The talented freshmen mixed in with Miller-McIntyre and other veterans who understand what it's like to play ACC basketball have been a nice group at times. Manning has even managed talented junior center Devin Thomas, who's been up and down emotionally, well. He didn't play most of the final 3:55 of the game, and it obviously worked out just fine for Wake Forest. But he's had big games against teams like Duke and Louisville this year.
Rather than play him because he's talented and avoid criticism, Manning has chosen to build his program the way he wants to build it.
His team has gotten better as the year goes on, something that sounds simple but hasn't always been a theme with Wake teams of the past. The 70-34 loss on Wednesday to a dominant Virginia team aside, this team has competed hard against even the upper-echelon teams in the ACC.
"For the most part, we've shown how we're going to play, compete with effort and energy and battle. We haven't played like that every game, but I think we've established that as our mindset," Maning said. "At this point in the season, I feel very comfortable with our young guys because they've played so many minutes. I think our veterans really appreciate the contributions of our new guys and it's a good mix.
"But I think we're moving in the right direction. We're not moving as fast as I'd like, but we're getting there."
Manning has never been one for moral victories, and he didn't seem that much more enthusiastic when speaking to the media after this game than he did after the loss to Virginia. He wasn't as angry or annoyed, but he wasn't overly jubilant.
He knows he still has plenty of work to do with this program, and it starts with building on success.
"I think the rest of the story will be told these next two games and how we go into the ACC Tournament," Manning said. "We've got two more games to get prepared to go win an ACC Tournament, and that's got to be our mindset. We have to use this as momentum and we have to build upon this -- in practice, in drills, and have it carry over into the game."
3. Seems obvious now, but Pitt is in some trouble
When his team took a nine-point lead after being down much of the first half, Dixon certainly felt good about where his team was.
Then his team fell apart down the stretch and things that once seemed easy no longer did.
"I'd say we went cold, but we had layups and we missed free throws, so I don't know it was that we missed shots," Dixon said. "We had some turnovers when we got down. It was a combination of things. You can put one word on it, I don't know if you can. But you've got to get stops if you're not going to score, and we didn't do that. We lost a nine-point lead with 11 minutes left."
Dixon deserves some credit with the way he's gotten his team to play the final half of the season. They started out the year 13-8 with losses to Hawaii and Virginia Tech. But they entered the Wake Forest game having won six of their last eight, and their only two losses were at ranked teams (Louisville and Virginia), not to mention two home wins over ranked teams (Notre Dame and North Carolina).
But three games left at Wake, hosting Miami and at FSU, Pitt probably had to win out. And they didn't.
"For us, it's a killer. The season's not over. We've got opportunities and we can get to the (NCAA) Tournament, but this one hurts right now. As I told our guys, it can hurt for about an hour but once we get on the plane, we've got to get ready for Miami. It can't linger. It can't hold us back," Dixon said.
"We're going to play well on Wednesday. We have to. We're going to spend every minute once we get home, get on this plane, on getting ready for Miami and getting ready for senior night."
Stats That Matter
-6. Wake Forest had 3 turnovers in its first nine possessions (and the first 2:43 of game action). Wake Forest had 3 turnovers the rest of the game in its final 54 possessions (and the final 37:17).
-17 and 18. Pitt had 17 offensive rebounds and pulled down 42.5% of its missed shots for the game, but it turned those into just 18 second-chance points. In the second half, it was even worse -- nine second-chance points off of 11 offensive rebounds (and Pitt retrieved exactly half of its missed shots).
Straight Talk
"No, I didn't. I didn't. I thought he kind of looked like a cornerback on that one. He saw the pass coming and he just catted (sic) it and ran right through. That was a great steal for us." -Manning on Miller-McIntyre's steal with 3:17 to go
"(Wilbekin) came in a marked man in conference play because he shot the ball so well in non-conference. Not a lot of room, not a lot of opportunities at times to shoot. He was the one who carried us in that first half, going 4-of-4. I think he shot one more shot in the second half early on, that stepback shot away from our bench, I believe. He didn't shoot anymore. But just having him out on the court, his presence opens up driving lanes for guys." -Manning on Mitchell Wilbekin's big shooting night
"We work this move a lot in the practice, with screens and pick and pop and running in transition and finding me at the top of the key or at the three-point line. We work this a lot, so this move is very famous for us." -Mitoglou on his go-ahead three-pointer with 2:42 to go
