Here’s my first game recap: When Wake blitzed #11 Virginia

Now I let you in on a little secret to sportswriting. Covering a game on deadline is a race to get a game recap online before the competition.

What you end up doing as a game crawls to an end is keep one eye on the floor as you’re typing up your quick game story, and playing a bit of a guessing game in the process, because you have to start writing before it’s over.

Some nights, when a game is a blowout, are easier than others, when a game is tight.

Tuesday was the former. Wake Forest led Virginia by 14 with 7:57 left, and it was still 10 with 1:16 to go.

By that stage, I already had the bulk of my first recap done and ready to post online.

The only thing I’d need to do is update the score in the first sentence, and details like the leading scorers and other incidentals, later on.

I had this one in draft format on the website as Virginia inbounded the ball down two with four seconds left.

All that was left was to hit the blue Publish button, and it would go live.

This was the story that I had to trash.

 

Wake Forest holds on, tops #11 Virginia

Wake Forest opened up an early nine-point first-half lead and never looked back, topping #11 Virginia, 71-69, on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Wake (11-9, 2-6 ACC) had lost its last four coming in, three by double-digits, but the Demon Deacons led 17-8 eight minutes in, and withstood a long cold spell in the first half to lead 26-24 at the break.

The Deacs led by as many as 14 in the second half aided by streaky three-point shooting.

Wake Forest hit five of its first six three-point attempts in the second half after going 0-of-8 from behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

Virginia (15-5, 4-4 ACC) made things interesting in the final two minutes, closing to within a point on a Malcolm Brogdon three with four seconds left, before the Deacons closed the game out at the free-throw line.

Bryant Crawford had 22 points to lead Wake, 15 in the second half on 6-of-6 shooting, including 3-of-3 on threes.

UVA got almost nothing outside of Brogdon and Anthony Gill, who had 45 of Virginia’s 69 points.