Wake Forest’s ACC Tournament woes continue in loss to Clemson in Charlotte
Make it a clean 20 years.
The Wake Forest men’s basketball program came into Wednesday night’s matchup with Clemson hoping it would shake off some decades-long frost from its bones. The Demon Deacons hadn’t won two games in the same ACC Tournament since 2006.
And after a victory over on-the-bubble Virginia Tech on Tuesday, all seemed possible.
But that drought wasn’t quenched Wednesday. In fact, in the nightcap of the second round of the ACC Tournament in Spectrum Center in Charlotte, vanquishing whatever conference-tournament demons facing this program always felt a bit too far away from the program’s proverbial grasp.
Thirteenth-seeded Wake Forest ultimately lost to No. 5 seed Clemson, 71-62, in a game that seemed to get out of hand in a hurry — and then got interesting thanks to a late Demon Deacon run.
That first Clemson lead was thanks to nine first-half Clemson 3s, the Tigers’ dominance on the glass all game (40-33) and a slow Wake Forest start — an understandable one, really, after the team won an emotional game in overtime the night before.
Juke Harris led the Deacs with 22 points, and Nate Calmese with 20 points.
“I just thought we really competed our tail off in the second half defensively and got back in the game, just couldn’t put enough scoring pressure on them,” Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes told reporters postgame. “I thought on offense early their physicality bothered us. We had turnovers and shot turnovers were standing too much. I thought second half our play after the play-action was a lot better.”
He added: “I’m pretty proud of my team, how tough and resilient they are. They fought and fought and fought, just not quite enough.”
Wake finishes 17-16 on the year. This will mark the sixth consecutive year the Deacs have missed the NCAA Tournament under Forbes.
Wake Forest has only made the NCAA Tournament once since 2010. That came in 2017 when the Deacs made a First Four appearance, and lost, under coach Danny Manning. Forbes replaced Manning in 2020. Though he’s now strung together five consecutive winning seasons, he’s yet to experience much success at the ACC Tournament or make the NCAA Tournament.
Against Clemson on Wednesday night, the Tigers built a 41-23 halftime lead behind solid 3-point shooting. The Deacons shot better after halftime, hitting 54.5% in the second half to finish at 44% for the game, and they drew as close as 10 points twice, the final time at 63-53 with 4:01 to play.
Both Harris and Tre’Von Spillers described what it was like to mount an impressive second-half comeback using the same words their coach used about them: believing in one another, staying resilient.
“Just telling each other that we’ve just got to stay connected, just one play at a time,” said Spillers, who finished with 15 points. “No matter what’s going on on the offensive end we’ve got to come down and get a stop, and I feel like that’s what helped us bring our momentum into that deficit. Just staying together and just helping one another.”
Said Harris: “Just continuing to believe in each other, not guard several ways, make sure we’re coming together. And I feel like we did that.”
Wake finally cut the deficit back to single digits when Mekhi Mason sank two free throws with 2:06 left trimming Clemson’s lead to 63-55. But Clemson’s Ace Buckner drove through the Wake defense down the lane for a layup with 1:27 to play and the Tigers held on.
Clemson (22-9) moved to the tournament quarterfinals to meet No. 4 seed North Carolina on Thursday night at 9:30 p.m.
Forbes said if given the opportunity, Wake would accept a bid to the NIT.
“They want to play,” Forbes said about his players. “I like that about them. They want to play. They like playing. They like each other. I like coaching them. I don’t like not getting offensive rebounds or defensive rebounds, but I do like coaching them. So we’ll see. We’ll play if the opportunity presents itself.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 11:46 PM.
