Winston Salem, NC- Hunter Sallis led the Demon Deacons with 20 points with Juke Harris coming off the bench to score 17 points of his own as Wake Forest beats N.C. State 77-59 on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, N.C. State falls to 8-6 overall 1-2 in the ACC while Wake Forest improves to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in the conference.
Wake Forest led 38-32 at the half and N.C. State’s lead the entire game was just one point as the Wolfpack shot 40% from the field. Tre’Von Spillers scored 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting for Wake Forest while Harris was 6-of-8 shooting.
The Demon Deacons led by four points five minutes into the second half and went on a 12-2 run leading 57-43 to never look back including a 3-pointer by Ty-Laur Johnson. Hunter Sallis hit a jumper with five minutes remaining for the biggest lead 73-51.
Wake Forest shot 58% in the second half and 55% for the game. They started quickly with Harris and Sallis hitting back-to-back 3-pointers going on a 9-0 run to lead 19-4 early. The Demon Deacons held a 7-1 advantage in blocks.
Both teams struggled from three, the Wolfpack was 4-13 shooting 30.8% and the Demon Deacons were 6-16 shooting 37.5%. N.C. State shot 71.4% from the free throw line while Wake Forest shot 78.9% from the charity stripe.
N.C. State was led by Marcus Hill’s 14 points. Dontrez Styles added 11 points and Michael O’Connell chipped in with 10. The Wolfpack shot 48% in the first half and 33% in the second. Hill opened the second half with a layup to pull the Wolfpack within four, but Wake Forest was quickly back up by 12 with 12:11 left in the game after two free throws by Sallis.
The Demon Deacons outrebounded the Wolfpack 31-25, especially along the defensive end with a 23-16 advantage. Wake Forest also had a 13-10 advantage in assists, and had a 38-20 advantage in points in the paint. There were a combined 24 turnovers between both teams and a combined 30 fouls.
Coaching Comments: N.C. State head coach Kevin Keatts describes a need for consistency going forward. Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes gave his thoughts: “There were a couple of things going into the game we thought were important for us to win. They are averaging 18 points per game in transition, which is eighth in the country. We wanted to hold them to nine or under and we held them to 10. They’re also averaging 13 offensive rebounds per game in their wins and we held them to nine. We turned them over 13 times in a low possession game. That makes it awfully hard for them to score.
In December and January during the ACC, we have been shooting 48 percent from the field and 37 percent from three and 76 percent from the line. Those are winning numbers. Teams are shooting 38 percent against us. That’s a 10 percent difference. We just have a lot of guys that are playing a lot better.
Wake Forest is back in action on Saturday at Miami. N.C. State is home against the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame on Wednesday.
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