Last Second Shot Lifts Wake Past Iowa

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Nov. 30, 2010

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By MICHELE DANNO

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Wake Forest’s J.T. Terrell connected on a deep three-pointer with three seconds remaining to lift the Demon Deacons past the visiting Hawkeyes, 76-73, on Tuesday night in a ACC/Big Ten Challenge contest.

Iowa spent much of the second half playing catch-up, as it battled back from a 10-point deficit to even the game at 73 with 2:34 remaining. The Hawkeyes had a chance to take the lead with 13 seconds left, but junior Matt Gatens missed a contested lay-up. With the clock winding down, Wake Forest appeared out of sorts offensively, but Terrell drilled an NBA three-point attempt – his seventh of the game – to propel his squad to the victory.

Freshman Melsahn Basabe, who was named the Lennox Player of the Game after finishing with 13 points and eight rebounds, said he wasn’t discouraged by the close loss.

“For a lot of us, this is our first road experience,” said Basabe. “It’s not an excuse, but this is an experience that a lot of great teams and players go through. We need to learn from tonight and not let it happen again.”

It was a tale of two halves, as the Hawkeyes dominated the opening 20 minutes of play. Iowa jumped out to a 10-5 lead to start the game behind five quick points by Basabe, before pushing its advantage to 18-7 on a fast break dunk by Eric May at the 13:28 mark.

Wake Forest managed to cut into the Hawkeye lead with an 11-5 spurt to make the score 23-18 with six minutes remaining in the first half. Back-to-back long balls by Gatens then ignited a flurry of scoring for Iowa, as the Hawkeyes built its lead to 18 (39-21) with 1:44 on the clock, before heading into the locker room with a 39-27 advantage.

The Demon Deacons returned from the half looking like a different team, dominating on both ends of the court. The two teams traded buckets to start the half, before Iowa hit a drought. Wake Forest held the Hawkeyes without a field goal for a six-minute stretch, where it turned a 13-point deficit into a 48-43 lead.

Trailing by 10 with 9:02 remaining, the Hawkeyes began chipping away at the Demon Deacon lead. Back-to-back Basabe jumpers trimmed the lead to six (62-56) before Bryce Cartwright’s lay-up made the score 62-58 with 7:43 remaining.

The Hawkeyes then fought all the way back to regain the lead on an old-school three-point play by May with 3:17 left. Iowa, however, couldn’t capitalize down the stretch, as it missed its final six shots, before Terrell’s late game heroics.

May led a group of four Hawkeyes in double figures, as he finished with 17 points and six steals. WFU’s Terrell, meanwhile, scored 32 points, making 9-of-16 shot attempts, including seven three-pointers.

Despite falling short, Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery left the game with a positive attitude.

“I think a lot of things were really positive tonight,” said McCaffery. “We out rebounded them, executed our sets, and never panicked when we were down. We learned what it is like to play on the road. We got rattled a little bit, but for the most part kept our poise and execution.”