Wake Forest will look to take a step toward righting its issues on the road on Saturday afternoon when it visits Louisville for an Atlantic Coast Conference contest.
The Demon Deacons (10-5, 2-2 ACC) have an impressive 8-0 record at home. The road is a different story, however, as they are 1-3 in true road games — and they’ve also lost two more in neutral-site contests.
Wake Forest followed up two straight wins at home with an 88-79 setback at North Carolina on Wednesday. The Demon Deacons held a slim one-point lead midway into the second half before the bottom fell out against the Tar Heels.
“I thought the last 10 minutes they really turned up the intensity on defense and got much more aggressive. I thought that rattled us,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “I thought we caved to the pressure of the intensity of the defense. We had unforced turnovers. We only had eight at halftime; we were in good shape. I think we had four atomic bombs in the second half in the last eight minutes. We just totally went down and dumped it. We can’t do that.”
Damari Monsanto scored 17 points, while Andrew Carr and Tyree Appleby each added 16. Carr also had nine rebounds and five assists, while Appleby had nine assists.
The Cardinals (2-13, 0-4) enter Saturday’s clash having lost four in a row, including a 70-69 setback versus Syracuse on Tuesday. The one-point loss was the fourth this season for Louisville, which didn’t help itself by committing 21 turnovers.
“Very frustrating because they scored off most of the turnovers we had,” Cardinals leading scorer El Ellis said. “That’s killing us, the turnovers. We were solid at the beginning of the game, and just had those mental lapses at the end. Pretty much, we just have to be better.”
Ellis collected 20 points and nine assists against the Orange. He boasts team-leading averages in points (17.7), assists (4.5) and steals (1.0).
–Field Level Media
