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A rapidly improving Wake Forest team begins a gauntlet of tough matchups on Saturday when the Demon Deacons travel to Charlottesville to take on the second-ranked Virginia Cavaliers. Wake has won three of their last four games, including a 72-70 victory over Miami last time out that raised some eyebrows around the ACC.
Now 4-8 in the ACC (12-13 overall), the Demon Deacons have a rough go of things to close out their conference slate. In the next three games, Wake Forest plays Virginia twice with a game against No. 10 Notre Dame sandwiched in between. A road trip to No. 4 Duke also awaits before the ACC Tournament begins.
Virginia, despite being 22-1 and leading the ACC at 10-1, has their own issue in trying to adjust to the loss of Justin Anderson, who is out 4-6 weeks with a broken finger that had to be surgically repaired. In three halves of basketball without him going to back to last Saturday’s win over Louisville when he was hurt, the Cavs have shot just 36 percent from the field, despite winning that game and Wednesday’s 51-47 triumph at North Carolina State.
Malcolm Brogdon ended up being the leader against the Wolfpack, scoring 15 points despite foul trouble. Mike Tobey and Anthony Gill added a combined 20 points and 20 rebounds inside, production that will have to continue if the Cavaliers are going to stay atop the ACC while Anderson is out.
One area where Virginia suffered against N.C. State, however, was from outside. Without Anderson, who shoots 48 percent from three-point range, the Cavaliers hit just 2-for-11 from beyond the arc in the win over the Wolfpack. It’s tough to win consistently with only two buckets from outside.
Wake is an average three-point shooting team itself at about 33 percent. But Mitchell Wilbekin and Konstantinos Mitoglou are both near 40 percent and have combined to make 76 three-pointers this season. The Demon Deacons may have better luck outside than at the free-throw line, where Virginia holds a tremendous advantage in this game. Wake is an awful 64 percent from the line on the season, while the Cavaliers hit at nearly 74 percent.
Virginia’s offense should look a little smoother Saturday now that Wednesday’s first tough road test without Anderson is out of the way. Also, Wake Forest is 286th in the nation in scoring defense, giving up about 71 PPG. The Demon Deacons also score 71 a game, but that sort of production isn’t likely against the renowned Virginia defense, which leads the nation allowing just 50.5 PPG.
That defense didn’t seem to be too adversely affected by Anderson’s absence on Wednesday, though Wake’s size may give the Cavaliers some trouble. A decisive Virginia run, something that has become a bit of a second-half staple for the Cavaliers over the last 50 games or so, will likely put this one out of reach.
Prediction: Virginia 63, Wake Forest 49
Ed Morgans is an ACC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @writered21 and add him to your network on Google.
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