Tag: Cameron Hildreth

Notre Dame’s season ends with ACC Tournament loss to Wake Forest

Still a good year all things considered.

Even with how well Notre Dame had played lately, even the most ardent members of the fan base knew this year’s team only could go so far. Getting to the second round of the ACC Tournament against Wake Forest was more than anyone could have hoped for at the start of the season. A year many will call a success ended with a 72-59 Irish loss to the Demon Deacons.

The Irish (13-20), never led in this contest or even tied it, but that shouldn’t have been a surprise. The Deacons (20-12), once considered a lock for the NCAA Tournament, now are fighting to get in and had a lot more to lose here. Losing in South Bend recently didn’t help their cause, and falling to the Irish again would have killed their March Madness dreams.

This game showed which team is more season right now, and you can see it in the various scoring stats. The Deacons held considerable advantages in points in the paint (38-14), fast-break points (15-5), second-chance points (16-7) and points off turnovers (15-7). All of that meant a team that knew how to hustle and find easy shots. The Irish might get there more consistently one day, but that wasn’t going to happen this year.

Kevin Miller led the Deacons with 17 points. Hunter Sallis, the ACC’s minutes leader, scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Andrew Carr achieved a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Cameron Hildreth added 10 points.

[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] finished his ACC Rookie of the Year campaign with a game-high 21 points, which included make all 12 of his free throws on a day he shot 4 of 16 from the field. [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, and [autotag]Carey Booth[/autotag] got nine of his 11 points, all in the first half, on three 3-pointers.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Duke loses highly competitive 83-79 game on the road to Wake Forest

Duke loses a closely contested game against Wake Forest 83-79.

No. 8 Duke has been playing its best basketball of the season of late, and coming into their Saturday tilt with Wake Forest, they had won five straight basketball games.

Saturday saw them unable to push that win streak to six, as the Blue Devils fell 83-79 in Winston-Salem after a hotly contested game.

These two ACC foes met in Durham less than a month ago, with Duke winning 77-69. Wake came out on top in their rematch after shooting 60% from the field for the entire game.

The first half was a largely back-in-forth affair, with the Blue Devils pushing out to an early 15-9 lead behind 3-pointers from Tyrese Proctor, Caleb Foster, and Jared McCain. Wake responded, closing the gap as the teams hit the under-eight media timeout with Duke holding a 25-22 lead.

For the remainder of the first half, the game remained at most a three- to four-point affair. Duke ended the half with a 38-36 lead after a cheap foul on Jaylen Blakes gave Cameron Hildreth two free throws with less than a second left.

Proctor and Foster chipped in eight points each over the opening 20 minutes, while Kyle Filipowski led the way for Duke with 10 points and five rebounds. Gonzaga transfer Hunter Sallis was locked in during the first half en route to 14 points and five boards for Wake Forest.

The second half is when things turned up a notch.

Duke and Wake exchanged run after run and upped their percentage from three above 50% after shooting just 4/12 from distance in the first half.

Duke struggled to stop Wake in the second half, but thanks to tough shotmaking of their own, they remained in the game to the end.

Three turnovers in the final two minutes ultimately undid Duke’s chances of coming out on top despite weathering an incredible display of shooting from Hunter Sallis, who finished with 29 points on 5/6 shooting from deep.

Jeremy Roach added 16 points of his own, while Filipowski led the Blue Devils in scoring with 17 points.

As the game concluded, Kyle Filipowski was hobbled and helped off the court as Wake students and fans stormed the court and appeared to be somewhat responsible for injuring him in what is sure to be a hot topic over the next few days.

Filipowski said the problem was with his knee after the game.

For Duke, they’ll lace their sneakers back up and retake the court at home on Wednesday night against Lousiville. Wake Forest will travel to South Bend to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

ACC men’s basketball leaders as of Dec. 3

No Notre Dame players.

All ACC teams got a taste of what conference play will look like during the past week. We also started to see some more stability atop the statistical leaderboards as the criteria for making them tightened a bit. That means the numbers we’re seeing are a bit more honest. Here’s who we have atop those leaderboards right now;

ACC men’s basketball leaders as of Nov. 26

No Notre Dame players on this list.

We are heading into the end of November. What does this mean as far as college basketball? Not much because no conference games have been played yet, so we only are left to imagine how well the current statistical leaders will play against that competition. Until then, here are those leaders as we get close to December:

ACC men’s basketball leaders as of Nov. 12

Quite a few names lead in free throws.

College basketball season is back, and fans couldn’t be more excited. What that initially means is high statistics across the board. Even if you know these numbers won’t hold up, they still are thrilling to look at. Here are the players who posses those numbers: