Recap: Wake Forest Beats Navy 82-72 to Advance in NIT

Feb 14, 2026; Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; Wake Forest Demon Deacons forward Juke Harris (2) brings the ball up court during the first half against the Stanford Cardinal at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images The road to Indianapolis continues for the Deacs, as Wake Forest defeated Navy 82-72 in the Joel to advance to the next round. Let's keep it going 🎩 pic.

twitter. com/fgctgeRniK — Wake Forest Men's Basketball (@WakeMBB) March 19, 2026 Let’s make this one a rapid recap since it is the NIT and the Deacs only trailed for a whole 15 seconds in this one. Wake got another pretty balanced scoring effort from the team tonight with 5 players in double figures.

Juke Harris once again led the way for the Deacs with 26 points on 7-13 shooting—it was pretty clear he was just bigger and stronger than the Midshipmen trying to defend him, and he was able to get to he rim whenever he wanted to. While Wake shot just 27% from beyond the arc, they were able to dominate the game with 38 points in the paint and 17 assists on their 27 made baskets. Despite the final score, this one kind of felt like an early season buy game to me.

Maybe it was the sparse 2,000 person crowd in attendance, but it just felt like there wasn’t a ton of energy or sharpness from the team tonight. I kind of got the feeling that they knew they could win in the end if they had to, so the team wasn’t completely locked in early. Regardless, a double digit win is a double digit win, and the Deacs are moving on to take on the winner or Illinois State-Kent State sometime this weekend.