Notre Dame @ Wake Forest preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 29, 2020 ) Wake Forest 80, Notre Dame 90

Nip and tuck is the name of the game for Notre Dame, which will play its final road contest of the regular season Saturday at Wake Forest in an ACC tilt. The Fighting Irish have been involved in a school-record six one-point games this season but will try to avoid another such contest against the Demon Deacons, who they defeated 90-80 at home Jan. 29.

The Fighting Irish, who are 3-3 in one-point games, including wins in the last two such contests, have also been in three two-point affairs, one 3-point contest and two four-point outcomes and are 6-6 in games decided by fewer than five points. The latest one-point finish occurred Wednesday when T.J. Gibbs, who leads all active players in the ACC in career points (1,522), hit a floater in the paint with one-tenth of a second remaining in a 62-61 win over Boston College. "We'll take it any way we can get it," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, whose team has won seven of their last nine games in a desperate attempt to qualify for the NCAA Tournament," told the media. "It was one of them ugly ones. We couldn't win games like this in early January." A double overtime win at home over Big 4 rival No. 7 Duke is nice for the fans, but it doesn't do a whole lot for the Demon Deacons, who are mired in their third straight losing season and fifth overall under coach Danny Manning, who is 77-108 at Wake Forest and 29-78 in the ACC.

TIME: 4 p.m. ET. TV: RSN

ABOUT NOTRE DAME (18-10, 9-8 ACC): Rex Pflueger only contributed five points against Boston College, but made a play to close the first half that would prove big at the end of the game. The senior intercepted an inbound pass with 1.6 seconds remaining and banked in a shot from beyond half court to cut the Notre Dame deficit to seven rather than 10 points. "He makes winning, smart basketball plays," Brey said of Pflueger, whose biggest career bucket may have been a tip-in to win an NCAA Tournament second-round game in 2017. "That's a huge play. You're down seven, but you feel like you're tied, mentally."

ABOUT WAKE FOREST (12-15, 5-12): Brandon Childress looked nothing like a hero in the early going against Duke, opening 0-of-10 from the field, but would be before the game was over. The senior hit a 3-pointer near the end of regulation and scored 13 of his 17 to points in the two overtimes for the Demon Deacons, who snapped an 11-game losing streak to Duke. "I don't care about percentages," Childress, who moved into 27th on Wake Forest's scoring list, told the media. "I'm satisfied with the shots. It might not have went as much as I'd like to, but I wanted to find the right moment to take over the game and I did that."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Fighting Irish, who are 3-9 in Quad 1 and 2 games, hadn't had a winning record in the ACC since Jan. 13, 2018.

2. Notre Dame is 5-3 against Wake Forest as a member of the ACC.

3. John Mooney had his 23rd double-double for Notre Dame against Boston College to wrestle the No. 1 spot in Division I from William & Mary's Nathan Knight.

PREDICTION: Notre Dame 85, Wake Forest 80