WINSTON-SALEM — Josh Howard surveyed the court from the top of the key with a minute to play and noticed something was missing.
It was Broderick Hicks.
Hicks was out there on the court, though, hidden in the left corner in front of the Wake Forest bench, temporarily out of Howard’s sight.
With a little help from Hicks, Howard finally spotted his open teammate. In turn, Hicks finally made his first appearance as an offensive threat.
Hicks drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner with 57.4 seconds to play to give Wake an 80-79 lead, and the Deacs didn’t look back as they defeated Minnesota 85-79 at Lawrence Joel Coliseum on the first day of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Hicks, who finished with five points, had missed his first six 3-point attempts.
“I kept throwing them up and they felt good,”said, Hicks, who had to add a little extra height to his shot to get it over the outstretched arms of a Minnesota defender.
“I knew sooner or later one of them had to fall.”
Said Howard, “I counted my men, and I noticed one of them was missing. I saw him waving his arms and I hit him.”
Hicks’ trifecta gave Wake its first lead since the 5:08 mark of the first half, when the Deacons were ahead 29-28.
Minnesota led 77-71 with 2:32 left to play, but Wake outscored the Golden Gophers 11-0 in the final 90 seconds.
The Gophers missed their last eight shots of the game.
“A lot of heart,” said forward Antwan Scott, who finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. “We’ve been down before, last game we couldn’t pull it out. We weren’t going to do it again.”
Scott exemplified the perseverance that the Deacons displayed on Tuesday night.
Wake trailed 73-65 with less than six minutes remaining, and Scott scored eight of the Deacons’ next 12 points to cut Minnesota’s lead to 79-77 with 1:38 to play.
With Minnesota up 77-72, Scott hit a baby hook from the left block to pull Wake within three points.
After two free throws by Minnesota’s Dusty Rychart, Scott rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Darius Songaila and converted a three-point play that set up Hicks’ heroics.
Scott made his final mark by swatting away a potential putback by Rychart with 13 seconds left and Wake ahead by five.
“I knew the guy couldn’t see me, I was just standing there,” Scott said. “My arms are long enough that I could block it without fouling.”
The Deacons, who improved to 5-1, were led by Songaila’s 23 points and 10 rebounds. He hit all 13 of his free throws, including two that extended Wake’s lead to five points with 21 seconds left.
Howard added 21 points and nine rebounds for the Deacons, while Rychart led the Golden Gophers (3-1) with 22 points.
For a while, Rychart was Minnesota’s sole provider of offense. He hit four of his first five shots and scored 12 of the Gophers’ first 18 points. The rest of the team had combined to go 2-for-14 at that point.
Minnesota struggled early from 3-point range, missing its first eight attempts.That trend changed in the second half, when the Gophers hit five of their first six attempts from behind the arc to go ahead by as many as nine points.
Wake still trailed by five with 2:20 left when Wake coach Skip Prosser made what looked like an insignificant move. Hicks came off the court in favor of reserve guard Taron Downey, who was inserted for defensive purposes.
Seventeen seconds later, Prosser plugged Hicks back in the lineup to lead the Deacon offense.
Few would have thought at that point that Hicks, who didn’t even start the second half, would serve such a valuable role as a shooter, not a passer.
Said Hicks, “I was open. Even though I missed a bunch, if I’m open, I still feel like I can hit some shots for my team.”
It’s a good thing for the Deacons that Howard felt the same way.
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Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com
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