Wake Forest University
DePaul
Deacons Edged By DePaul
12/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 13, 2005
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Sammy Mejia scored a season-high 24 points -- including a basket to answer a late Wake Forest run in the final seconds -- and DePaul beat the 16th-ranked Demon Deacons 84-81 on Tuesday night to snap their 21-game home winning streak.
Draelon Burns added a career-high 22 points in his first start of the season for the Blue Demons (5-3), who beat an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent for the first time in five years.
Eric Williams scored 24 points for the Demon Deacons (7-2), who looked rusty after an extended layoff en route to the rare home loss. Wake Forest was tied with Utah for the nation's fifth-longest home winning streak and had won 28 straight home nonconference games.
The game was a homecoming for DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright, who was an assistant at Wake Forest from 1985-94 under Bob Staak and Dave Odom before taking over at North Carolina-Wilmington. He spent eight seasons there and three seasons at Richmond before ending up in Chicago, and now has his first win in six tries against the Demon Deacons.
Mejia and Burns were big reasons why.
Mejia came in averaging a team-high 14 points, and shot 9-for-15 with three 3-pointers. He also played tough defense against Wake Forest's Justin Gray, an all-ACC performer who finished with 12 points on 3-for-11 shooting.
Meanwhile, Burns got the start because second-leading scorer Karron Clarke was sidelined after spraining his right ankle at Monday's practice. The sophomore finished 8-for-14 from the field and hit three 3s.
The Demon Deacons had not played since a 78-59 win over Elon on Dec. 3, and didn't practice as a team last week due to exams. They looked rusty from the start, struggling to match up with Mejia and Burns while getting outrebounded for the first time this season.
They were just 19-for-32 at the free throw line, with Williams going 6-for-14.
DePaul went ahead to stay when Cliff Clinkscales left Harvey Hale standing with an excellent crossover dribble and drove to the basket for a 52-50 lead with about 14 minutes left. That started a seven-point spurt by the Blue Demons.
DePaul went ahead by as many as 10 points late before the Demon Deacons made a late push to close within 80-78 on Michael Drum's 3-pointer with 46 seconds left.
But -- as he had done all night -- Mejia answered. With his team holding the ball and the shot clock winding down, Mejia drove on Trent Strickland and knocked down a turnaround jumper with 12 seconds left for an 82-78 lead.
Mejia then added two free throws after being fouled on a rebound of a missed 3-pointer by Gray to seal the win.
