KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The NCAA Tournament, a dream come true
for most teams, turned into a nightmare for Wake Forest.
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Fri, March 16
What an absolute embarrassment for the ACC and the Demon Deacons. The halftime
deficit of 43-10 was humiliating. They shot 3-for-25 against a tenacious Bulldog defense.
Butler had a bunch of kids who flat out knew they belonged in the field, especially after
taking Florida to the wire last year. The Bulldogs got balanced scoring from LaVall
Jordan and Thomas Jackson. They led Butler to a huge win for the Midwestern Collegiate
Conference.
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"This was beyond my worst nightmare," Rafael Vidaurreta said.
The seventh-seeded Demon Deacons (19-11) had the lowest-scoring
half in any NCAA Tournament game since the introduction of the shot
clock in 1985-86, hitting only 3-of-25 while falling behind Butler 43-10 in the Midwest Regional on Friday.
While the Deacons rallied with 53 points in the second half,
Butler (24-7) cruised to a 79-63 victory, its first NCAA Tournament
triumph since 1962.
"We went out fighting," said Robert O'Kelley, whose 20 points
in the second half doubled the total his team managed in the woeful
first half. "We had hope. We had faith."
The Bulldogs went into halftime unable to believe what they'd
seen.
"At the half, I didn't know what to say to the team," Butler
coach Thad Matta said.
Wake Forest coach Dave Odom knew what to say.
"I told them if we score 53 in the second half and hold then to
20, we tie," he said. "We did score 53, but we only held them to
36. Still, that's a good half's work. I was pleased with the way
they fought back in the second half."
|  | | The Butler bench was celebrating most of the game after building a 43-10 halftime lead vs. Wake on Friday. |
"The emotions we're feeling are indescribable," Matta said.
"The first half, I don't know if we can play better than we did.
The second half, we played a little scared with the big lead."
The Demon Deacons, who won their first 12 games this season and
looked as if they might contend for national honors, shot 59
percent in the second half after shooting 12 percent in the first.
Their 3-of-25 misery included layups that rolled off the rim,
medium-range jumpers that seemed to dip into the basket and pop
out, and a laughable 3-point attempt by A.W. Hamilton that missed
everything by about a foot and a half.
The Deacons were without one of their top scorers, injured Craig
Dawson. But he might not have made much difference after Wake
missed its first 12 shots and did not have a field goal until
Broderick Hicks got a put-back with 11:02 left.
By then, the Bulldogs led 25-5. The closest Wake got, except for
the final score, was 16 points when O'Kelley completed a
three-point play that made it 73-57 with 3:04 to play.
Hicks made an uncontested layup in the final seconds that made
it a 16-point defeat at the hands of the Midwestern Collegiate
Conference champions, who have won nine in a row and 13 of 14.
"They came out with all their guns loaded," Odom said. "They
unleashed quite a barrage against us."
Butler was shocked to be leading the Demon Deacons of the
powerful ACC by 33 at halftime.
"At the half, everybody in the locker room said we have another
20 minutes to go," Butler's Brandon Miller said. "We were
excited. No way did we ever think we'd be leading by that much. In
the first half, we played as well as we can."
Wake's 10-point first half was only three points above the
all-time low of seven, by Brown in 1939.
As cold as the Deacons were in the first half, the Bulldogs were
almost as hot.
When Rylan Hainje drilled a 3-pointer to make it 25-3 with 11:22
to go, Butler had hit 7-of-8 from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs
finished 8-of-25.
Miller had 18 points for Butler, Joel Cornette and LaVall Jordan
each scored 15, and Thomas Jackson had 14.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Butler Clubhouse
Wake Forest Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Brandon Miller doesn't remember his Butler team ever playing better. (courtesy NCAA)
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Fafael Vidaurreta and the Deacons weren't expecting to go home this early. (courtesy NCAA)
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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