January 18, 2025
Blacksburg, VA- Hunter Sallis scored 24 points, Cameron Hildreth had 21 and Wake Forest took down Virginia Tech 72-63 on Saturday afternoon in Blacksburg, VA. The Demon Deacons never trailed in this one after Sallis hit a 3-pointer, to make it 48-43 with 12:25 left. The Hokies were in this one late until Hildreth and Juke Harris both made a pair of free throws to lead by 10 with 18 seconds left.
With the win, Wake Forest (14-4, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), is off to its best league start since the 1996-97 team led by Tim Duncan opened 9-1. Wake Forest’s five-game ACC win streak is its first since 2004-05. Hunter Sallis managed to score 20 points for the seventh-straight game.
The Hokies were led by Jaden Schutt’s 12 points which are now 8-10 overall and 3-4 in conference play. Other scorers included Mylyjael Poteat with 11, Tobi Lawl chipped in 10 with 12 rebounds and Brandon Rechsteiner got 10 points along with Tyler Johnson’s 10 rebounds. The Hokies only forced seven turnovers and got eight points from a total of nine offensive rebounds.
The Demon Deacons led by as many as 10 points in the first half and led by two at the break 31-29. Wake Forest shot 45.6% from the field to the Hokies 40.4%. Both teams were 6-of-19 from 3 pt range for a 31.6%. The Hokies outrebounded Wake Forest 35-29, both teams had over 20 points in the paint. Virginia Tech had 24 to Wake’s 26.
Coach’s comments from Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes:
“Right now we have a very locked-in and focused basketball team. You can tell those things in the 48 hours leading up to a game by how they prepare, how they hold themselves accountable and hold themselves to a standard. Then they get the game plan going in the game which was evident by the way we started the game. I believe we were 2-for-12 to start the game and we were pretty aggressive defensively against a team that is hard to guard defensively and has a lot of momentum right now. They’ve won three of their last four games and they’re playing at home, but we didn’t end the half right. They scored on eight of their last 13 possessions.”
Then they came out of the second half and gave up a four-point play and they scored five out of six times but we stopped them again. However, we were fouling too much. During the last couple of road games when we did that I went zone but I didn’t want to do that today unless I had to, which we did late. Our defense cranked it down and did a better job today. We did a really good job executing against a defensive team that’s really physical. We only turned the ball over seven times and made some tough physical plays in the lane. Between those turnovers and going 18-of-26 in the paint, I think that’s what won us the game. Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth are just two very exceptional players who are fun to play with and are great teammates. All those things together add up to a win.”
Wake Forest hosts North Carolina on Tuesday, while Virginia Tech plays at Georgia Tech on Wednesday.
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