Wake Forest Demon Deacons (16-8) vs. Virginia Cavaliers (19-6)
February 17, 2024 12:00 pm EDT
The Line: Virginia Cavaliers -3.5; Over/Under: -
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The Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Virginia Cavaliers meet Saturday in college basketball action from John Paul Jones Arena. Wake Forest is sitting at 16-8 overall this year. The Deacons are coming off a loss to Duke on Monday. As for Virginia, they’re currently 19-6 after a loss to Pittsburgh. Let’s get into our Wake Forest vs. Virginia prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Wake Forest got off to a pretty solid start at 11-3 with losses to only Georgia, Utah and LSU. The Demon Deacons are 5-5 since then with losses to Florida State, NC State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Duke alongside wins over Virginia, Louisville, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and NC State.
In the Duke matchup on Monday, the Deacons were outscored 29-27 in the first half. Wake Forest didn’t get any closer on a 48-42 second-half run and lost 77-69 in the end. Leading team scorer Hunter Sallis put up 22 points with five rebounds and four assists in the defeat.
Virginia Cavaliers
Over on the Virginia side, they lost to Wisconsin, Memphis, Notre Dame, NC State and Wake Forest in their first 16 outings. The Cavaliers then beat Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, NC State, Louisville, Notre Dame, Clemson Miami and Florida State before another loss to Pittsburgh.
On Tuesday matched up against Pittsburgh, the Cavaliers came out of the locker room trailing 35-31. Virginia was outscored 39-32 in the second half and lost 74-63. Reece Beekman was the leading scorer on 19 points, while Isaac McKneely added 15 points with three rebounds and five assists.
ANDREW’S FREE WAKE FOREST VS VIRGINIA PREDICTION
I’ll stick with Virginia. Both of these teams could use a good bounce-back performance here, though. The Cavaliers didn’t rebound all that well in their latest loss to a pretty good Pittsburgh team (a 35-25 deficit) but overall they didn’t play too badly with 50 percent from the field, 19 assists and just five turnovers. The outside shooting (28.6 percent) wasn’t great, though. Virginia has given up a combined 150 points in the last two games, which is pretty uncharacteristic for them.
These teams last met up back on January 13 in a 66-47 home win for Wake Forest. The Cavaliers shot miserably in that one (28.1 percent) and got outmuscled on the boards 40-27 in a pretty dismal performance. Virginia has a great chance at some revenge in this rematch, and I think they’ll rally to pull it off.
