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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Wake Forest can finally boast about
NCAA Tournament success in the post-Tim Duncan era.
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The ACC was jumping for joy. A lot of people figured Pepperdine was going to send the Demon Deacons home. Wake Forest had something to prove after being down 43-10 at halftime against Butler last season.
Wake came out strong and jumped out to a 15-2 lead, but Pepperdine came back. Wake prevailed thanks to Craig Dawson's outside shooting and Darius Songaila's play inside, and point guard Broderick Hicks showed tremendous leadership in a steady performance with 15 points and seven assists.
Dawson hit five trifectas to help Wake move on. Skip Prosser's team made up for last year's embarrassment against Butler.
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The seventh-seeded Demon Deacons defeated 10th-seeded Pepperdine
83-74 Thursday in the Midwest Regional for their first tournament
victory since Duncan starred for the team in 1997.
"We had a great start, a less-than-scintillating middle and a
very gratifying finish," first-year coach Skip Prosser said.
Senior Craig Dawson led the Deacons with 19 points, including
five 3-pointers, in his first and last NCAA Tournament.
Dawson has waited four years to play in the tournament. Last
season, he sat out with a shoulder injury from the week before in
the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, and watched from the
bench as the Deacons were upset by Butler in the first round of the
NCAAs.
"Not being able to play last year was very tough," he said.
"When I got out there, all the emotions I expected to have were
there."
As a freshman and sophomore, Dawson played in the NIT, including
Wake Forest's 2000 tournament title.
"It's the best feeling I've had since I've been here," he
said, referring to Thursday's victory. "Nothing can compare to it,
even a NIT championship."
Dawson hit two big 3-pointers early in the second half Thursday
to put the Deacons (21-12) back in front when Pepperdine (22-9)
twice held one-point leads. He punctuated the scoring on a dunk
with 14.9 seconds remaining.
The Waves, who twice trailed by 13 points early in the game,
kept it close most of the second half, but never took more than a
two-point lead.
Devin Montgomery led the Waves with 17 points, including four
3-pointers. Boomer Brazzle added 13 points.
"We just couldn't get over the hump," forward Jimmy Miggins
said. "We got good looks, but we just couldn't hit them."
Pepperdine tied the game for the final time at 56 with 11:06
remaining on Craig Lewis' first basket of the game.
Wake Forest then outscored the Waves 27-18 to end the game and
give Prosser a victory at Arco Arena, where he made his college
head coaching debut with Loyola of Maryland in 1993.
"We had a chance to win in the last five minutes as did they,"
said first-year Pepperdine coach Paul Westphal. "Wake made a
couple of plays and baskets, and we weren't able to match."
Senior Darius Songaila added 18 points for the Deacons. Wake
Forest lost in the second round of the 1997 tournament, when Duncan
was a senior, and then didn't make the tournament again until last
year.
"This is what we worked so hard for four years," said senior
Broderick Hicks, who added 15 points and seven assists. "All I
could think of was the joy last Sunday when they put our name on
the board."
The Waves had won 17 of 19 coming in, but they faced a huge
jinx, having never beaten an ACC team in 11 tries. The defeat made
them 0-12, including four first-round tournament losses.
The Deacons twice led by 13 points in the game's opening six
minutes. The Waves got back in it on 3-pointers, including three by
Montgomery.
Brazzle launched a 12-6 run over the final 4:12 that had the
Waves trailing 38-35 at halftime. Montgomery scored five in a row
and Mike Westphal, the seldom-used son of the coach, closed the
half with a fastbreak layup.
Pepperdine was in the tournament for the first time since 2000,
when the Waves upset Indiana 77-57 in Bob Knight's last NCAA
tourney game as the Hoosiers' coach. | 
