WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Primed for its first official test of the new season, the Wake Forest men’s basketball team opened the 2022-23 campaign with a 71-59 win over Fairfield in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Monday evening (Nov. 7).
The Demon Deacons (1-0) utilized short offensive bursts throughout the contest, ultimately seeing four individuals score in double figures. Andrew Carr played efficiently from the opening tip to total 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, along with five rebounds. Daivien Williamson and Cameron Hildreth added 14 of their own, while freshman Bobi Klintman contributed 11 in his collegiate debut. The Deacs garnered 29 points from their bench.
In his first showing with the Old Gold and Black, Tyree Appleby posted eight points, four rebounds and three assists.
The Deacs held the upper hand in rebounding over the Stags (39-33), as five players grabbed four or more boards. Klintman led the way on the glass, collecting six rebounds.
Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes remains perfect in season openers, advancing to 8-0 in his Division I head coaching career.
How It Happened
- Carr opened the scoring for the Demon Deacons with a converted and-one layup assisted by Appleby 25 seconds into the contest.
- The West Chester, Pa. native followed up his three-point play with a dunk after a nice pass from Bradford into the paint to give the Demon Deacons a quick 5-0 lead.
- Carr ended a scoring drought for the Demon Deacons with a driving layup following a shot clock violation by the Stags.
- Wake Forest held Fairfield to 0-for-9 from the floor over the first seven minutes of the game.
- A Carr three-pointer from the corner stopped a 10-0 Fairfield run with 10:36 remaining in the first half.
- The forward opened the game 4-for-5 shooting with the first 10 points of the contest.
- Williamson opened his account for the season with a corner three of his own assisted by Hildreth.
- Taylor cut the Fairfield lead in half with a three-pointer assisted by Carr at the 6:22 mark in the first half.
- Klintman recorded his first points in a Wake Forest uniform with a jumper courtesy of a Williamson assist with 5:50 left in the half.
- Hildreth grabbed his own rebound and proceeded to give the Demon Deacons the lead with 2:41 to go in the first half.
- The freshman from Sweden capped off a 10-0 run with his first three to give Wake Forest its largest lead of the game before the end of the half.
- Wake Forest went into the locker room up 32-25.
- Carr led the Demon Deacons with 10 points in addition to three rebounds after the first 20 minutes.
- Hildreth finished the half with seven points, two rebounds and two assists.
- Klintman recorded six points and three rebounds in 13 minutes and sparked the 10-0 run to close out the half.
- A trio of Bradford free throws and a Carr second-chance dunk opened the scoring for the Demon Deacons in the second half.
- A Carr layup gave Wake Forest its first double-digit lead of the contest at the 15:01 mark.
- Appleby threw a lob off of the glass and Klintman slammed it down on a fast break to put an end to a 5-0 Fairfield run.
- A pair of Klintman free throws at the 9:50 mark made him the second Demon Deacon to reach double-digit scoring in the contest.
- Keller intercepted a pass in the paint and knocked down a three in transition for the first basket of his collegiate career.
- Hildreth knocked down a jumper followed by a pair of Appleby free throws to give the Demon Deacons a five-point advantage with just over five minutes remaining in the game.
- Appleby added four quick points with a pair of free throws and a driving layup to help the Demon Deacons hold on to a comfortable lead.
- Williamson knocked down a corner three with 1:31 to go in the contest to reinstate a double-digit advantage.
- The veteran guard and Klintman earned looks at the charity stripe as time winded down, with Williamson netting five of six attempts in the final minute.
- Wake Forest defeated Fairfield, 71-59.
Stat of the Game
- Wake Forest had four players record double-digits in points during the win over Fairfield:
- Andrew Carr – 14 points
- Daivien Williamson – 14 points
- Cameron Hildreth – 14 points
- Bobi Klintman – 11 points
Key Moment
- Klintman recorded six points and three rebounds in 13 minutes and sparked the 10-0 run to close out the half.
- Williamson started the boost with a pair of makes at the free throw line, followed by Klintman knocking down one of his own.
- Hildreth fought his way in for a second-chance basket next, before making one of two free throw attempts.
- Another free throw by Williamson, followed by a Klintman triple, capped off the run for ten unanswered points.
Coach’s Comments
“I knew this was going to be a really hard game. I have a lot of respect for Jay Young and his team. I was really concerned with how they played Rutgers. They reminded me of some of the teams I’ve had in the past when I was at East Tennessee State where you go in there and pop a high-major team because they’re not ready to go. They’re going to win a lot of games. I don’t know where they’re picked. I saw something that’s not correct. I think they have a really good basketball team. They’re really hard to prepare for, because they stay with their offense. It’s a really hard game for your first game. That’s when you got a lot of new guys, and I thought our guys did a really good job paying attention to detail to put the game plan into the game and how we were going to defend all those actions. We didn’t get off to a great start offensively, but we didn’t let our offense dictate how we defended and that kept us in the game. Ty and Andrew got in some foul trouble, but our bench really helped us. Bobi, Cam, Keller and even Bradford started and played pretty well.
We ended the half with seven stops in a row from the 4:33 mark. That really turned the table for us going into halftime. In the second half I didn’t think we fouled as much and that really kind of helped us and kept them off the line. We only had 10 turnovers and four of those were charges, so only six live-ball turnovers, which is pretty good. They can’t turn defense into offense that way. Carr got off to a great start. Daivien made some free throws late. I don’t think he and Ty played as well as they can play. Cam played really hard. We scored 71 points, but we left probably a couple or three layups and a couple of one-on-ones on the table there that we probably could have put the lead up a little bit better. I was very happy with that win. I knew it was gonna be a hard one. One of the harder first games I think I’ve had in my career as far as an opener in a game like that.” – head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest will host the Georgia Bulldogs in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Friday, Nov. 11.
Tip-off against the Bulldogs is set for 8:30 p.m. and the game will stream live on ACC Network.
