Wake Forest stayed within striking distance for most of the night, but Vanderbilt’s late push was enough to leave the Demon Deacons with a loss and a 1-1 start to the season.
Kevair Kennedy paced Wake Forest with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting, while Gavin Placide added 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. For Vanderbilt, Tyler Tanner finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds as the Commodores, ranked No. 24, pulled away when it mattered most.
The biggest separator was the perimeter. Wake Forest went just 6-for-26 from three-point range, a rough 23% that wasn’t nearly enough against a Vanderbilt team that hit 10 threes while shooting 37% from deep. Justin Ray, Isaac Carr and Jamari McDowell combined to go 3-for-14 from beyond the arc, and that kind of night from the guards left Wake chasing the game.
The issues didn’t stop there. The Deacs shot only 35% on two-point attempts and made just half of their free throws, wasting chances to keep pressure on Vanderbilt. In a game where Wake needed every clean possession it could get, those empty trips piled up fast.
Still, Wake had stretches where it looked like it could hang. After absorbing an early run, the Deacs trimmed the margin to three with 3:30 left in the first half. Vanderbilt answered with a 9-0 burst to close the half, and that finish changed the feel of the game going into the locker room.
Vanderbilt also did a lot of damage on the glass. The Commodores outrebounded Wake Forest by 15 and collected 17 offensive rebounds, including six late in the first half. Those extra chances kept the pressure on and helped fuel several runs.
Even in defeat, Wake showed some fight on defense. The Deacs held Vanderbilt without a field goal for about four minutes in the first half, limited the Commodores to 39% shooting overall and finished with six blocks. That side of the ball looked sharper and more disruptive than it did a year ago.
There were clear positives and obvious problems for Wake Forest to sort through. The defense appears to be ahead of the offense right now, and the next stretch of the schedule will be about getting more comfort and rhythm on that end. The Deacs have four softer home games before heading to the Bahamas around Thanksgiving.
In Other News...
Wake Forest Keeps Fueling A Bigger ACC Debate
Wake Forest stayed put in second place in the Week 10 ACC Football Power Rankings, a spot it has held for six straight weeks as the league picture continues to shuffle around it. The Demon Deacons are coming off a 51-7 win over Virginia, and that kind of result has kept them firmly in the conversation behind Miami, which remains the unanimous No. 1 team.
The bigger debate now is less about Wake Forest itself and more about how the rest of the ACC keeps rearranging underneath it. Louisville and Duke both moved up this week, creating more movement in the middle of the rankings, and the weekly list is still being shaped by a nine-person editorial staff weighing recent results and overall performance. Wake Forest has stayed steady, but the pressure around it keeps building. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forests Offense Gave Fans Little Hope At Vanderbilt
Wake Forests trip to Vanderbilt brought a familiar kind of frustration, the sort that can linger when a team does enough on one end to stay competitive but never finds any rhythm on the other. The Demon Deacons actually defended well enough to hold the Commodores to 38% shooting, yet the offense never matched that effort and the margin kept growing in a 23-point loss, the second straight season Vanderbilt has handled Wake Forest by a wide margin.
Kevair Kennedy tried to give the Deacs a spark with 20 points, and Gavin Placide added 10, but the scoring support never really arrived behind them. For a team looking to build something early, the concern is less about one bad night than the way the offense stalled even while the defense gave it a chance to hang around. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Just Put Real Playoff Pressure On Its Final Stretch
Wake Forests place in the first College Football Playoff rankings has given the final stretch of the season a different kind of weight. Sitting at No. 16, the Demon Deacons have at least put themselves in the conversation, and ESPNs Mark Schlabach has them slotted in a position that would keep their postseason path alive if the committees view holds. With the playoff field still fluid and the rankings sure to shift as the season plays out, every week now carries a little more consequence than the last.
The next few games will go a long way toward deciding whether Wake Forest stays on that track or slips back into the pack. The Deacons still have Merrimack at home, plus matchups with SMU, Georgia Tech and Duke, and each one matters in a race where margin for error is shrinking. For a team that has already forced its way into the early national picture, the challenge now is turning that respect into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]