Six Deacs Score in Double-Figures En Route to Victory over Bulldogs

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - With its balanced scoring tempo once again on full display, Wake Forest men's basketball enjoyed major contributions across the roster on Wednesday evening (Nov. 23), downing South Carolina State (0-6) in a 105-74 victory to keep its undefeated home record alive.

Wednesday was the first time that the Demon Deacons (5-1) had six players finish in double-figure scoring since Nov.17, 2021 against Charleston Southern.

Cameron Hildreth led the way in posting a new career high of 19 points, while going 7-of-10 from the field and grabbing eight rebounds. Making his first start of the 2022-23 campaign, Damari Monsanto plugged in his highest point total of the new season (16), sinking a game-best four three-pointers and adding five boards.

Freshman Bobi Klintman recorded the first double-double of his collegiate career, finishing with a season-high 15 points and 10 rebounds. The forward was nearly perfect from the floor, going 5-of-6 on field goal attempts.

Tyree Appleby fell just short of a double-double, totaling 13 points and dishing out nine assists. The graduate guard additionally scooped three steals.

In his Demon Deacon debut, Jao Ituka shined with 10 points and three assists, going 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.

Wake Forest's 51 and 54 points scored in the first and second half, respectively, were its highest totals of the season thus far. The team was at its most efficient, piecing a collective 67.9 field goal percentage and a 52.9 clip from beyond the arc. Defensively, Wake Forest held South Carolina State to only 16.7 percent shooting from three-point distance.

The Deacs have had at least three players finish in double figures in every game this season.

How It Happened

Monsanto opened the scoring with a three pointer. The redshirt junior guard stole the ball on the next possession which led to a Hildreth layup to give Wake Forest a 5-0 lead at the 18:44 mark.
Hildreth opened the game a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor in the first six minutes of action to help build a 16-8 Wake Forest advantage.
Klintman earned his way to the line and knocked down both of his free throws to extend the lead to double digits with 12:12 remaining in the first half.
A Bradford block led to two points on the other end courtesy of a Carr layup at the 8:51 mark.
Hildreth reached double-digit scoring just 12 minutes in as he converted a three-point play with eight minutes left in the half.
Appleby knocked down a three followed by back-to-back Monsanto jumpers to give Wake Forest a 14-point lead and force South Carolina State into a timeout with 5:14 remaining in the first half.
- The Demon Deacons had knocked down five of their last six field goals before the timeout.
A couple of Hildreth free throws, including a three-point play from Marsh, extended the Wake Forest run to 10-0 and got the lead up to 19 with 4:23 left.
Appleby closed out a dominant first half with his third three of the game (3-for-3) with 13 seconds left to send Wake Forest into the locker room with a 51-27 advantage.
- As a team, the Demon Deacons shot 15-of-26 (57.7%) from the field and 6-of-10 (60%) from beyond the arc in the first half.
- Wake Forest held South Carolina State to just 1-of-14 (7.1%) from deep.
- Appleby and Hildreth led the team with 13 points in the first half for a combined 8-for-9 shooting. The Florida transfer added four assists and two steals in his near-perfect first half performance.
- Klintman recorded seven points and seven rebounds in 13 minutes of action.
Hildreth and Monsanto got the Deacs going in the second half with back-to-back three pointers and forced South Carolina State into taking an early timeout.
The Demon Deacons went a combined 4-for-5 out of the first media timeout, including dunks from Bradford and Carr, to keep a comfortable 68-48 lead with 13:28 remaining in the contest.
Ituka earned his way to the line as he scored his first points in a Wake Forest uniform at the 12:16 mark.
- Ituka made his first Wake Forest field goal a minute later with a driving layup.
Marsh became the fifth Demon Deacon in double digits after a dunk and a pair of free throws just before the under-eight media timeout.
Monsanto put Wake Forest up 31 with a dunk at the 6:10 mark in the second half.
- The Demon Deacons had made their last eight field goals while holding the Bulldogs to just one of their last 11.
Taylor knocked down a three pointer and Bradford recorded a dunk with four minutes left to maintain a 30-point advantage as the teams went into the final media timeout.
Ituka reached double digits in his debut with a driving layup with two minutes left in the game.
Grant van Beveren scored his first points of the season with a pair of layups to close out the scoring and see out a 105-74 Wake Forest victory.

Coach's Comments
"Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. I felt like we needed a game like that tonight. Cam did a great job of getting us off to a great start on offense. He was very aggressive off the dribble, got to the basket and made plays for himself and for others. Ty played very well in the first half. We had a lot of balance. Bobi came off the bench for a double-double. I didn't even realize it until I got the stat sheet, but we felt like this was a game that he could get on the glass, and he did a really good job of that. We didn't play great defense in the second half for a while, we kind of got a little lazy there, but picked it back up and finished it the way we needed to. We have one more game on Saturday and then we have a tough stretch where we gotta be on the road. We're going to be at Wisconsin and at Clemson. We have to take care of business on Saturday." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest will host the Hampton Pirates at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon inside Joel Coliseum before hitting the road to Wisconsin for the ACC/BIG Ten Challenge next week. Saturday's game will be broadcast on the ACC Network and Tuesday's game at Wisconsin will air on either ESPN2 or ESPNU.

Six Deacs Score in Double-Figures En Route to Victory over Bulldogs

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Team Stats

Cameron Hildreth

Damari Monsanto

Bobi Klintman

Tyree Appleby

Players Mentioned

Grant van Beveren

Wake Forest Athletics