Wake Forest Athletics
Men's Basketball Downs East Tennessee State, 77-53
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
December 19, 1998
By JOE MACENKA
AP Sports Writer
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Robert O'Kelley had 21 points and three steals and Wake Forest's Demon Deacons rolled to a 77-53 victory over East Tennessee State on Saturday night.
Wake Forest (9-2) dominated inside against the shorter Buccaneers and made a season-high 10 3-pointers, including four by O'Kelley and three by Joseph Amonett.
Darius Songaila had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Amonett had 11 points and Antwan Scott added 10 for the Demon Deacons, who outrebounded East Tennessee State by 10 and held the Buccaneers to 41-percent shooting.
East Tennessee State (5-3) was playing for the first time in nine days, and it showed. The Buccaneers fell behind by as many as 21 points in the first half and 25 in the second.
Wake Forest took control by holding the Buccaneers scoreless for more than five minutes in the first half, helping the Demon Deacons improved to 66-4 against non-conference opponents at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
Dimeco Childress had all 11 of his points in the second half for East Tennessee State, which lost to an unranked team for the first time this season. Reggie Todd added 11 points for the Buccaneers, whose top scorer, Greg Stephens, was limited by the flu to 26 minutes and eight points.
Adrian Meeks hit a short jumper to cut the Buccaneers' deficit to 21-19 midway through the first half before they went cold. East Tennessee State closed the half by missing eight of 10 field-goal attempts and turning it over five times.
Wake Forest scored the next 15 points to start a 22-6 run, putting the Demon Deacons up 43-25 at halftime. O'Kelley and Craig Dawson had five points apiece in the surge Rafael Vidaurreta added four.
O'Kelley gave Wake Forest its biggest lead when he stole a pass, went the length of the court for a layup, was fouled and sank the free throw to make it 57-32 with 11:48 remaining.
East Tennessee State was unable to get closer than 17 the rest of the way.
