January 15, 2025
Winston Salem, NC- Stanford winners of two straight in ACC play will try for their third in Winston Salem vs the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Wednesday evening.
Wake Forest has won four of their past five games and are 12-4 overall and 4-1 in conference play, while Stanford is 11-5 overall and 3-2 within the conference. Both teams average over 70 points per game and over 7 steals per game. Too bad this game is on the road as Stanford is 10-1 at home this season but only 2-3 on the road. Along with this game the Cardinal still have three more games to the east coast with games at Duke, Georgia Tech and North Carolina.
The Deacs are coming off their second-consecutive ACC road win of the season over Miami. Wake is currently 8-0 at The Joel this season and are looking to start the fourth straight season 10-0 at home. The Demon Deacons join Duke as the only league teams undefeated at home this season. Cameron Hildreth led the Deacons with a career-high six three pointers scoring 31 points. Hunter Sallis scored 22 points and also added four rebounds and three assists to his line on Saturday. Wake Forest shot its second-best shooting performance of the season, going 35-of-64 (54.7 percent) from the field.
Stanford is coming off an 88-65 win against Virginia. They are led by senior forward Maxime Raynaud, the only ACC player averaging a double-double so far this season, notching 20.9 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. The Cardinal roster holds an exciting mix of returning players, transfers and freshmen. Raynaud was awarded the Pac-12 Most Improved Player last season. He ranks ninth nationally in scoring at 20.9 points per game and fourth in rebounding with 11.5 per night. He leads the ACC in scoring and rebounding, and his 13 double-doubles this season pace the nation. No other player in the country has more than 11 and no other ACC player has more than seven.
The Cardinal has three players averaging in the double figures led by Raynaud, Jaylen Blakes at 14.5 points per game and Oziyah Sellers at 14.2 points per game. Raynaud is putting up historic numbers where he would join a select group of players to win both the league’s scoring and rebounding titles, which has only been done 13 previous times in ACC history. The last five to do this have all earned the ACC’s top award: Marvin Bagley III (Duke, 2018), Tyler Hansbrough (UNC, 2008), Antawn Jamison (UNC, 1998), Tim Duncan (Wake, 1997) and Horace Grant (Clemson, 1987).
The series meeting between Stanford and Wake Forest is the second in program history, with Stanford holding a 1-0 record in the series after a six-point win in the 1997 NCAA Tournament. Brevin Knight led the Cardinal in that game with 19 points, five assists and four steals, overcoming an 18-point, 20-rebound performance from Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan.
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