Yes. The first 8 minutes was ugly basketball with WF playing down to their competition, as usual. WF stayed locked in defensively throughout however. Chill had 4 steals in the first half alone. There were plenty of lapses, especially late in 2nd half in which we (shocker) gave up wide open 3s. Thankfully UNCC literally cannot shoot. WF was 1-11 from behind the arc in the 1st half, a true anomaly for a team whose rare bright spot this season has been their outside shooting, especially from Childress. If we had shot the ball moderately well in the 1st half this would've been a much bigger blowout.
Wake's defense looks much improved, albeit from a low bar of expectation so far this year. They've gotten better on switching defenders...sort of. Any team could run give and go on us all day at this point.
This game for Sarr was feast or famine. Not only did the rim block at least one of his uncontested dunks, he missed a number of put backs and very easy shots. he was also rejected by a small white dude in the 1st half on a attempted dunk. However, I did like him coming off the bench and playing at the 4, which could in theory provide some matchup problems for other teams. He has a nice outside shot and once he got going mid-late 2nd half I was reminded of his potential. Ironically, it was after he got bloody and had to get stitched up that he got more aggressive. WHEN Sarr is assertive and gives us an inside presence we become a vastly more competitive team.
I can say for sure these kids were playing extremely hard and our bench was supportive and into it.
Also, no one has mentioned this but Childress accidentally ran to the UNCC bench during one 2nd half timeout. It was hilarious.
