Saturday, December 3
Greensboro, NC
2:00 PM

Wake Forest University

78
at
59

Elon

Justin Gray scored half his 22 points during the opening 5 minutes of the second half for Wake's ninth win of the season on Saturday, December 3, 2005

No. 22 Wake Forest Cruises Past Elon 78-59

12/3/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Dec. 3, 2005

Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Justin Gray scored half his 22 points during the opening 5 minutes of the second half, Trent Strickland added 10 points and 12 rebounds and No. 22 Wake Forest cruised to a 78-59 victory over Elon on Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum.

For the first time ever, the Demon Deacons (7-1) officially were the visitors in this arena, where they played most of their key home games before the opening of Joel Coliseum near campus in 1989. It hardly has served as the friendly confines over the years, since they improved to 61-76 all-time in Greensboro.

The Phoenix (1-5) were the hosts, choosing to serve in that role instead of traveling about 50 miles to Wake Forest for a "guarantee" game, as they have the previous four seasons. It didn't keep them from losing for the 22nd straight time in the series.

Montell Watson tied a career high with four 3-pointers and finished with 13 points for Elon.

The Deacons led 38-28 at the half before Gray helped them pull away. He worked inside for a layup, then began a personal 9-0 run with a 3 off a nice assist by Trent Strickland. On the other end, Jackson Atoyebi had consecutive shots blocked, leading to perhaps the prettiest play of the day for Wake Forest.

Michael Drum missed on a drive, and the rebound bounced toward the perimeter. Burly center Eric Williams chased it down, and as he was falling, flipped a pass over his head to Gray, who was standing patiently behind the arc.

His shot swished through for a 49-31 lead, and he added another a couple of possessions later to increase the margin to 21. Those were his final points, and 6-foot-11 center Kyle Visser provided the exclamation point to this blowout with his first career 3-pointer.

That came with about 2 1/2 minutes left, and he and the other Wake Forest starters came to the bench soon after.

Of course, after the opening 3 minutes, it appeared they might get to rest the entire second half. Elon had turnovers on its first three possessions, and when leading scorer Atoyebi finally got a look at the basket, two of his shots were swatted away.

The Deacons had no such trouble, running to a 10-0 lead before the Phoenix recovered. They rallied to tie it at 12, then took their only lead on a layup by Chris Chalko. Gray made a 3-pointer to put Wake Forest ahead for good, although the margin at the break still was only 10.

Atoyebi, who came in averaging 14.2 points, finished 2-of-10 from the field and had five points, the first time he has failed to reach double figures.

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