Wake’s NCAA hopes take a hit. Three takeaways from Pitt’s ACC Tournament win over Deacs
Wake Forest and Pittsburgh walked on to Capital One Arena’s court with similar goals Thursday, aiming to make an impression on the NCAA Tournament’s selection committee.
Wake’s early struggles put them in too big a hole to overcome and the Panthers earned the prize.
No. 4 seed Pitt built a 19-point second-half lead and saw No. 5 Wake Forest rally to trail by as few as three points before holding off the Demon Deacons, 81-69, in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Panthers (22-10) advanced to Friday night’s semifinals where they will meet top-seeded North Carolina, the nation’s No. 4 ranked team. It gives Pitt another big opportunity at a quadrant 1 win as it seeks to play in the
Wake Forest (20-13), like Pitt hoping for an NCAA Tournament bid, will now wait until Sunday’s bracket announcement to learn its fate. The Demon Deacons, who have lost four of their last six games, haven’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 2017.
“Obviously it’ll be down to the wire,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes, “but it won’t be down to the wire for the NIT, which we should have been in last year but didn’t. So we’ll play. We’ll get together. We’ll go back tomorrow, take Saturday off, get together Sunday, figure it out and then play from there.”
Ishmael Leggett paced Pitt with 30 points off the bench . That included a put-back basket with 2:47 to play that gave the Panthers a 69-64 lead.
“He was outstanding this afternoon and we needed it,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “I thought he provided just a toughness. Obviously the scoring, but he had five steals, eight rebounds. He was everywhere. He just kept making plays for us when we needed the big basket, we went to him.”
First-team, all-ACC guard Blake Hinson added 20 points for the Panthers.
Cam Hildreth scored 23 points for Wake Forest. He scored 13 of them in the second half after Pitt led 38-26 at halftime.
Wake shot 46% with 15 turnovers, while Pitt shot 48.1%.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Sallis’ early struggles put Wake in a hole
Hunter Sallis’ play, from averaging 4.5 points a game last season as a Gonzaga reserve to a 18.2 points this season for Wake Forest, is the main reason why the Demon Deacons are even in the NCAA Tournament discussion. But the first-team, all-ACC guard regressed in the ACC Tournament and his lack of production early on Thursday led to Wake’s elimination.
Sallis had as many turnovers (three) as points (three) in the first half against Pitt. He heated up during Wake’s furious rally to finish with 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting with five turnovers.
In Wednesday’s 72-59 win over Notre Dame in the tournament’s second round, Sallis scored 14 points but did so on 4 of 14 shooting. Wake survived that thanks to strong contributions from Boopie Miller and Andrew Carr. But that wasn’t the case on Thursday.
Wake showed fight
For all its problems offensively in the first half and early in the second, the Demon Deacons finally found their groove and nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback.
Pitt led 55-36 with 13:14 to play and still maintained a 57-40 lead with 11:12 remaining.
But the Panthers were in a stretch where they only made one field goal over nearly seven minutes of play.
That’s when Sallis and the Deacons finally heated up. Sallis scored eight consecutive Wake Forest points during one stretch.
When Andrew Carr scored inside, drew a foul and added a free throw, Pitt’s lead shrunk to 61-56 with 6:58 to play.
A Sallis free throw with 4:16 left trimmed Pitt’s lead to 65-62. Jaland Lowe missed a shot for Pitt, but Leggett rebounded and scored with 3:51 left to slow the Demon Deacons’ rally.
What happened last time Pitt played UNC?
The Panthers only faced North Carolina once in the regular season. That was back on Jan. 2 when the Tar Heels posted a 70-57 win at Pitt.
That was part of Pitt’s early struggles in ACC play as it was 1-5 in league play with a 10-7 record in the middle of January. The Panthers have only lost three games since and didn’t lost back-to-back games.
Thursday’s win was Pitt’s fourth in a row.
This story was originally published March 14, 2024 at 4:52 PM.