Second Round Recap – East Rutherford Region
(4) Wake Forest 84, (12) Manhattan 80
Chris Paul played an exceptional 40 minutes of basketball carrying the Demon Deacons to a thrilling 84-80 victory over Manhattan Saturday afternoon at the RBC Center.
With 13.6 seconds left and just five seconds remaining on the shot clock, Manhattan senior forward David Holmes accidentally left his man to double-team Paul, who passed to a wide-open Trent Strickland for an uncontested lay-up sealing the victory.
ACC Rookie of the Year Chris Paul finished with a game-high 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists. The 6’0″ guard was dominant on both ends against a 5’8″ Kenny Minor. Paul had an immediate impact with 16 points, three assists, four rebounds and a pair of blocks all in the first half.
The Jaspers (25-6) caught a second wind with a big three-point basket from Luis Flores with 2:26 remaining in the game. The basket was followed by a two-handed slam dunk from senior center Jason Benton, then a steal on an inbound pass, which eventually cut the deficit to two, 80-78. With an army of concerned Demon Deacons fans in attendance, Paul made a clutch lay-up with 1:26 to go, his last bucket of the night. But Manhattan was not done. Senior forward David Holmes was fouled from behind the three-point arc with 44.2 left. Holmes would connect on two-of-three from the charity stripe, making it 82-80, the last points scored by the Jaspers on the day.
There is to be no doubt that this was Manhattan’s best performance of the season. Junior forward Peter Mulligan came up huge at key moments, sophomore forward Mike Konovelchik had a big first half while sophomore guard Kenny Minor was a benefactor in the second scoring from the perimeter.
Senior Luis Flores, a Wooden Award finalist, put on a clinic and paced Manhattan with 20 points on eight-of-17 shooting. Holmes scored 19 points to go along with eight rebounds. Benton, who picked up two fouls just 32 seconds into the contest, scored 10 points while Minor and Konovelchik came off the bench to score a combined 15 points.
Wake Forest (21-9) advances to East Rutherford and will face number one-seeded St. Joseph’s in the sweet sixteen this Thursday at the Continental Airlines Arena.
