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No Notre Dame players.
The NCAA Tournament officially is here with five ACC teams among those seeking a national championship. The ACC particularly drew attention from the rest of the country after No. 10 seed NC State won the conference tournament for the first time since 1987. Strangely, no one on the Wolfpack concluded the ACC season as a leader in any of the major statistical categories. Some are going to March Madness though, and here they are:
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.
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Hunter Sallis was named to the All-ACC first team, another successful transfer portal guard addition for Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes.
Wake Forest junior guard Hunter Sallis was among the five players selected to the All-ACC first team on Monday, becoming the third consecutive Demon Deacons guard to earn that honor after transferring to Steve Forbes’ team.
Sallis, who spent the first two years of his career out west at Gonzaga, was joined on the All-ACC first team by RJ Davis at North Carolina, PJ Hall at Clemson, Kyle Filipowski at Duke, and Blake Hinson at Pitt.
This has become a trend at Wake Forest under coach Forbes. First it was Jake Laravia, who transferred from Indiana State and earned All-ACC honors in 2021-22 – and was selected 19th overall in the 2022 NBA draft. Then it was Tyree Appleby, a grad transfer from Florida who averaged 18.8 points for the Demon Deacons in 2022-23 on his way to an All-ACC nod as well.
Now the honor goes to Sallis, who paced Wake Forest in scoring at 18.3 points per night, while adding 4.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.0 steals per game on 41.6% shooting from three – a huge increase from the 25.8% he shot from distance in two years with the Zags.
Wake’s second leading scorer this year is Kevin Miller, another transfer guard coming over from Central Michigan and averaging 15.4 points per game.
Forbes’ success with transfer portal guards is no accident, as he has been able to find players who fit his system and help them thrive both offensively and defensively.
However, the influx of talented guards has yet to result in an NCAA Tournament for the Demon Deacons under Forbes, and this year’s team is squarely on the bubble heading into the ACC Tournament which gets underway this week.
No Notre Dame players on this list.
Well, we finally have reached March. The spotlight will shine bright on every team from here on out. But nowhere where the spotlight shine brighter than on the players most expected to lead their teams. That includes the ACC’s major statistical leaders, and you can find those players below:
From the postgame court storming to some crucial turnovers in the closing minutes, here are our biggest takeaways from Saturday’s game against the Demon Deacons.
The Blue Devils lost their third game in 10 weeks on Saturday, a nail-biting four-point loss on the road against Wake Forest.
Duke performed pretty exceptionally for most of the game, given the circumstances. The Blue Devils scored 79 points and shot 53.1% from the floor, and Duke made 11 of its 25 3-point attempts.
The star trio of Kyle Filipowski, Jared McCain, and Jeremy Rooach all scored at least 15 points. McCain made three of his four 3-point attempts, Filipowski had eight rebounds and five assists, and Roach made six of his eight shots from the floor.
The effort wasn’t enough against one of the best teams in the ACC, however, as Demon Deacons were led by 29 points from Gonzaga transfer Hunter Sallis in the statement home win.
The star-making performance was unfortunately overshadowed by a postgame altercation between Wake Forest fans and Filipowski, who was injured amid a court-storming.
How much of Saturday was a compliment to Wake Forest, and how much was a negative toward Duke? Here are our biggest thoughts on the game.
Social media had plenty of thoughts after Duke star Kyle Filipowski needed to be helped off the court after colliding with Wake Forest fans after the game.
Duke lost its third game since December 2 on Saturday afternoon, a road loss to a surging Wake Forest team, and social media had lots of thoughts on the game.
Wake Forest guard and former Gonzaga Bulldog Hunter Sallis made 11 of his 13 shots from the field, finishing with a game-high 29 points. The Blue Devils turned the ball over multiple times in high-octane possessions, including a killer one down two points in the final five seconds.
The game quickly gotten forgotten, or at least moved down the headline list, once the final buzzer sounded, however. Star forward Kyle Filipowski hurt his knee after colliding with some Demon Deacons fans when they stormed the court after the game.
Here are some of social media’s thoughts on the stunning post-game sequence.
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.
Hunter Sallis dropped 29 points and Wake Forest boosted their NCAA Tournament resume with a huge win over the Duke Blue Devils.
Hunter Sallis had 29 points on 11-13 shooting and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons picked up a massive win over the Duke Blue Devils, 83-79, on Saturday afternoon.
This win could not come at a more perfect time for Steve Forbes’ team, who moved to 2-5 in Quad 1 games with at least two more opportunities coming up: a road game against Virginia Tech and a home game against Clemson.
Wake Forest came into this game squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and needed a quality Quad 1 victory to boost their resume and hopefully break a streak of missing the Big Dance which goes back to 2017.
Forbes has done an incredible job bringing high level transfers to Wake Forest, including Jake LaRavia and Tyree Appleby, but Sallis looks like the one who will help this team breakthrough and go dancing.
The Gonzaga transfer is one of the most prolific, efficient scorers in the conference and this performance cements his legacy in Winston-Salem, a legacy that will grow even more if he leads this team back to the NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Devils travel to Winston-Salem on Saturday, where the Demon Deacons have yet to lose this season. Here’s a primer on Wake Forest before the matinee game.
Duke puts a five-game win streak and its new status as ACC co-leader on the line on Saturday against Wake Forest in one of the best games of the weekend.
The Blue Devils have won 16 of their past 18 games, but no team has gone into Winston-Salem and won this season. The Demon Deacons ended a five-game win streak for Pittsburgh on Tuesday, and they’ve also beaten teams like Virginia, Virginia Tech, and NC State on their home court.
One of those two trends will have to give over the weekend. Here’s a quick look at what Duke fans need to know about Wake Forest before the 2 p.m. tipoff.
No Notre Dame players.
The ACC is in its final few weeks before its tournament. If any team lying in the weeds is going to make a move, now is the time to get moving. Otherwise, they might as well just sit back and let the teams that deserve it more grab the best positions. Speaking of the best, here are the best statistical players in the conference:
