Tampa subregional

Wake points finger at itself

Demon Deacons, the No. 2 seed, say turnovers, inconsistency are responsible for an early exit.

By KEITH NIEBUHR, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 24, 2003

TAMPA -- Sometimes a team just doesn't have it.

That's how second-seeded Wake Forest described things after losing to upstart Auburn, the 10th seed, 68-62 in Sunday's second-round game at the St. Pete Times Forum. The Demon Deacons looked inward, blaming the defeat on bad execution, not bad breaks or bad calls.

"We didn't capitalize on a lot of opportunities," Wake's Josh Howard said. "We basically turned the ball over a lot and that's what happened. We knew Auburn was going to come in and play a great game and they did. We just couldn't pull it out at the end."

Howard, a 6-foot-6 senior forward and the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, had a particularly frustrating day. He had 14 points, six below his average, and eight rebounds but turned the ball over seven times and didn't score in the final 7 minutes, 26 seconds.

He was largely ineffective after picking up his fourth foul with 5:07 left.

"It hurts," Howard said. "But I have to deal with it. I had my opportunities to win this game, but I didn't capitalize."

Howard played well at times but seemed to force things down the stretch. He spent most of the day shadowed by Auburn guard Derrick Bird, considered by many to be among the Southeastern Conference's top defenders.

"He didn't take me out of my game at all," Howard said. "We had a lot of turnovers, and when a team turns over the ball and isn't scoring, and the other team is going down and scoring off our turnovers, it's going to be hard to beat that team."

Freshman guard Justin Gray, Wake's sixth man, hit five 3-pointers and finished with 26 points. But most of his teammates struggled.

Sophomore forward Vytas Danelius, who averages 12.9 points, and freshman center Eric Williams, in foul trouble much of the game, had four points each. Another starter, forward Jamaal Levy, scored three.

"Guys didn't step up," Howard said.

"We had won a lot of those close games throughout the course of the year," coach Skip Prosser said. "Offensively in the second half, we missed shots and threw the ball away. Part of the credit goes to Auburn for that, but I'm not sure we were the most poised team down the stretch either. I was concerned about our lack of execution."

Wake, which outrebounded 19 teams by 10 or more, had a 35-33 edge Sunday but was outrebounded by two in the second half. Tigers post players Marquis Daniels, Kyle Davis, Marco Killingsworth and Brandon Robinson combined for 42 points and 19 rebounds.

"They were big, and it was hard for us to score inside and especially to get open," Danelius said. "It was a physical match."

The Deacons had 18 turnovers, 11 in the second half.

They shot 47 percent in the first half, but only 26.9 percent (7-of-26) in the second. Wake did little offensively in the paint against Auburn's athletic front line and often settled for jumpers. The Deacons went seven minutes between field goals during one stretch.

"We just had a hard time scoring," Prosser said. "Some of it was a function of us just missing shots and throwing the ball to them. That happens, and for us it happened at very inopportune times."

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