Men's Basketball

ACC Tournament Notes: Notre Dame 80, Wake Forest 77

Postgame Notes
#11 Notre Dame 80, #14 Wake Forest 77
First Round 2021 New York Life ACC Tournament
Greensboro, N.C.
 
- Notre Dame (11-14) advances to Wednesday’s 9 p.m. second-round game versus No. 6 seed North Carolina (16-9). The Fighting Irish came out on the short end of an 66-65 score in the regular-season meeting between the teams at UNC on Jan. 2.

- Tuesday night’s win Notre Dame pushed Notre Dame to 11-5 all-time in the ACC Tournament. The Irish are 5-1 in ACC Tournament games at Greensboro Coliseum, with the five wins coming in succession. Since losing to Wake Forest here in their first-ever ACC Tournament game in 2014, the Fighting Irish won three games en route to the 2015 championship and were 1-0 last year before the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of the tournament’s final three rounds.

- Notre Dame has won its first game of conference tournament action in 11 of the last 12 seasons, with the 2014 ACC first-round setback to Wake Forest the lone blemish in that run. In the 20 years of conference tournament play under head coach Mike Brey, Notre Dame has failed to win its first game (that did not include a first-round bye) just four times. 

- The Demon Deacons slipped to 44-64 all-time in the ACC Tournament, including a 1-1 mark versus Notre Dame.

- The No. 11 and No. 14 seeds are now even at 4-4 when squaring off in the opening round of the ACC Tournament.

- Notre Dame overcame a 16-point deficit in the final 16 minutes and won the game on Trey Wertz’s pull-up 30-footer as time expired. The final 3-point basket left Wertz with 16 points on the night, matching Juwan Durham for team-high scoring honors. It marked the junior from Charlotte, N.C.’s sixth double-figuring scoring game of the season.

- Durham also pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for the Fighting Irish to record his second double-double of the season and the first since Jan. 16 versus Boston College (12 points, 11 rebounds).

- Each team connected on 12 shots from 3-point range. The combined 24 made 3-pointers fell one shy of the ACC Tournament single-game record of 25 by two teams (Clemson vs. Duke in the 2000 first round; Wake Forest vs. Georgia Tech in double overtime in the 2007 first round).

- Wake Forest junior guard Daivien Williamson led Wake Forest with 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the floor, and teammate Isaiah Mucius scored 20.

- Mucius also pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.