Wake Forest traveled down the road to Wilmington, North Carolina to take on the Seahawks. This was definitely not the prettiest game Wake Forest has ever played but the Demon Deacons came away with an 11 point victory on the road with a couple of strong performances by the seniors.
In the first half Wake, led by L.D. Williams, overcame a multitude of turnovers to take the lead 37-30 going into the break. Williams had a career night, scoring 23 points on 6-7 shooting including 11-12 from the line. After the intermission, Wake Forest stretched the lead out to 15. Late in the game, Chad Tomko, who missed most of the second half due to foul trouble, hit a couple of tough shots to cut the lead to five, at which point Williams' clutch free throw shooting extended the lead for good.
Ish Smith matched his career high with 19 points, along with five assists, and four steals. Aminu struggled to take care of the ball in transition once again but put up impressive numbers with 17 points (7-12 FG) and 13 rebounds. As a team Wake Forest took four attempts from deep, making it five or fewer attempts for two straight games. Wake's defense also stepped up holding Wilmington to 40 percent overall and 26 percent from three, 12 percentage points below their season average.
Despite the positive outcome there are definite areas for improvement for the Deacons. Wake must shoot better from the foul line, hitting 18-31 (.583) on the night. Luckily for Wake, the Seahawks were even worse from the free throw line, otherwise the game could have been much tighter. Wake Forest also has to take better care of the ball, racking up 16 turnovers in the game to only 10 assists.
Wake Forest's next game is Sunday night when the Deacs open up conference play against the Wolfpack of N.C. State on FSN.
