Wake Forest used two big buckets from Bryant Crawford to upset Indiana.
Wake Forest wasn’t supposed to be able to trouble Indiana without senior guard Codi Miller-McIntyre. Instead, the Demon Deacons used their superior size and two timely buckets from Crawford to knock off Tom Crean’s 13th-ranked club.
The win for Wake Forest avenges their loss last time out at home to Richmond and gives Danny Manning’s club some much-needed momentum. Manning’s team got 21 points from senior center Devin Thomas and 18 from sophomore power forward Konstantinos Mitoglou to upend the favored Hoosiers.
More important, were the 25 rebounds corralled by the front-court combination of those two with freshman big man John Collins.
Those rebounds would have been a wasted effort if not for some big plays by Crawford down the stretch. He made driving layups on back-to-back possessions to give the Deacons the lead. Showing considerable poise for a freshman, he made those two shots back to back after misfiring on 11 of his first 14 attempts.
While Wake Forest will be buoyed by the result, it’s a bitter pill to swallow for Indiana. The Hoosiers seemingly had control of the game but were undone by their lack of ability to secure defensive rebounds late and their curious shot selection. In particular, senior guard Yogi Ferrell was forced into several tough shots in the game’s closing moments on the way to a 4-of-11 performance from the floor.
He didn’t get any additional help from back court mate James Blackmon, Jr either. He finished the contest one of eight from the floor and only chipped in five points.
Indiana was led by Troy Williams with 16 points and Robert Johnson’s 14 off the bench.
The win takes Wake Forest to 3-1 and drops Indiana to the same record.