ENTERPRISE SPORTS WRITER

WINSTON-SALEM – Wake Forest brought Virginia’s magical Atlantic Coast Conference start to a screeching halt Saturday.

If not for a late spurt by the Cavaliers, the stoppage would have been with a resounding thud.

With a 13-1 run, the Deacs seized a 34-15 halftime lead, then led by 24 with just over eight minutes to play before holding on 69-57 to hand the first-place Wahoos their first conference loss in four games.

Wake (14-4, 4-2) built it commanding advantage on the back of Ish Smith shredding Virginia’s defense by either driving into the lane for buckets or lobbing the ball to Chas McFarland near the bucket.

Smith finished with 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished six assists. McFarland tallied 16 points and grabbed six rebounds. Al-Farouq Aminu had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“We just had too many defensive breakdowns,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Our ball pressure wasn’t good (on Smith). We didn’t help out. We didn’t get back.”

Wake shot 23-of-44 from the field (52.3 percent) on the strength of Smith hitting 7-of-10 and McFarland making 7-of-9. Smith and McFarland said that it helped that Virginia’s defense is the same as Wake’s and was designed by Bennett’s father, Dick.

“We go against that defense every day in practice and there is a little familiarity there,” Smith said. “I did a good job getting it inside and Chas capitalized nearly every time I got it in there.”

Wake never trailed, scoring the first six points and then going up by 10 before Virginia (12-5, 3-1) closed to 18-14 with 8:43 left. The Cavaliers would get no closer, getting just a free throw for the rest of the half.

Virginia’s drought came while missing its last 12 field goals of the half as their top two scorers for the season – Sylvan Landesberg and Jeff Jones – sat on the bench after picking up two fouls each. Landesberg scored 18 before fouling out. Jones and Maustapha Farrakhan had 10.

Wake held the Cavaliers to 20.7 percent (6-of-29) shooting in the first half. The 15 points for the first 20 minutes was the Cavaliers worst first-half output for the season. Their previous low was 21 against Stanford.

“We got outplayed early and often,” Bennett said. “They hit us in the mouth and we had too many breakdowns. Usually our defense is good enough to keep us in the game until our offense gets going.”

Wake enjoyed its biggest lead at 55-31 with 8:02 left. Virginia scored 13 straight points but never got within 10. The Deacons committed seven turnovers in the last seven minutes on the way to 24 for the game but kept their margin by hitting 10 of 12 free throws in the last 3:36.

“We got a little casual with our passes,” Deacon coach Dino Gaudio said.

“We have to throw crisp passes – 24 turnovers are too many.”

gsmith@hpe.com | 888-3519