Sunday, November 10
Greensboro, N.C.
1:00 p.m.
Wake Forest University
3-0,0-0ACC
72
vs
70
Michigan
1-1,0-0Big Ten
1
2
F
Michigan
38
32
70
Wake Forest
34
38
72
Wake Forest Moves to 3-0 with Gritty Comeback Victory over Michigan
11/10/2024 4:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball
With the win, the Deacs are now 2-0 against the Wolverines, winning in Ann Arbor in 2000 and in Greensboro in 2024.
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Despite trailing by as many as 13, the Wake Forest men's basketball team used a valiant second-half effort to remain undefeated with a 72-70 victory over the Michigan Wolverines on Sunday afternoon at First Horizon Coliseum.
Senior guard Hunter Sallis inched closer to 1,000 career points, leading the Demon Deacons (3-0, 0-0 ACC) with 18 points as he put the contest on ice with a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining. Sallis sits just 44 points from crossing over the 1,000 point mark for his career.
For the second-straight contest, senior forward Tre'Von Spillers reached double figures with 16 points, including 14 in the second half, helping him earn MVP of the Deacon-Wolverine Challenge. The Charleston, S.C. product provided the spark the Demon Deacons needed, going 5-of-6 from the field in the final 20 minutes of action, including an electric two-hand slam to put Wake Forest up by four with less than 40 seconds remaining.
The duo were joined in double figures by freshman Juke Harris. Harris was the only player on either team to reach double digits through the opening 20 minutes, pouring in 11 of the Deacs' 34 points. The Salisbury, N.C. native also added a pair of first-half rebounds and a block.
Scoring over half their points from inside the paint, the Demon Deacons controlled the lane with 38 points inside the paint. Senior center Efton Reid III grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds, including six on the offensive end to pace Wake Forest on the glass.
With the win over the Wolverines (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) Wake Forest has won the last three contests against sitting members of the Big Ten and are 7-3 over the last 10 against the Big Ten.
How It Happened
Stats of the Game
Key Moment
"I want to thank Michigan for agreeing to play this game. I think the world of Dusty [May] and always have. Watching them play before they came in today - he's got a really good team. I don't want to say I was nervous, but I could see a team that had a lot of confidence, played offense really well, and had great size. We played Alabama a couple of weeks ago and I thought 'Well there can't be anybody that plays offense as good as they play' and then I watched these guys. They have a really good team, and they're going to win a lot of games.
We built this team in the spring on gritty, grimy, tough and together. We felt like we had to get tougher to win these kinds of games. That showed today that these guys are a pretty tough minded group of guys. The game changed at the eight-minute mark, pretty much in the first half when Hunter went to the bench with two fouls. We finished the half, I think, with four kills. That's three stops in a row, four times, and then Juke really sparked us off the bench. He made some big plays in the second half, we continued to defend them, and they went 10 for 29 from the field and two for 16 from three, and had made, I think, eight threes in the first half. We turned them over 16 times and our defense was consistent. The threes they got early were off offensive rebounds, I don't really think they were off their initial set. We just didn't get the ball. They were beating this to the ball, to their credit, but we took them out of transition. During the second half, we played without fouling in a very physical game.
We stayed ahead of the play, and Efton Reid played 30 minutes. We hedged every ball screen, we only got beat on it maybe one time. Our guards did a great job at the hedge and taking away the short roll and then coming back to guard the ball. Offensively, we just kind of found a way. It took us some time, but the key was getting in the lane. We did a good job on offense and we were 1.5 points per possession when the ball got in lane for the game. Then we were 1.74 [points] in the second half. We did a much better job of finding a way to score, but when we weren't scoring, we played really good defense, and that carried us through the whole game. I'm really proud of my team for that." - head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest returns home for a midweek matchup against USC Upstate on Wednesday, Nov. 13, inside The Joel.
Tip is set for 7 p.m. and the game will air live on ACC Network Extra.
Senior guard Hunter Sallis inched closer to 1,000 career points, leading the Demon Deacons (3-0, 0-0 ACC) with 18 points as he put the contest on ice with a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining. Sallis sits just 44 points from crossing over the 1,000 point mark for his career.
For the second-straight contest, senior forward Tre'Von Spillers reached double figures with 16 points, including 14 in the second half, helping him earn MVP of the Deacon-Wolverine Challenge. The Charleston, S.C. product provided the spark the Demon Deacons needed, going 5-of-6 from the field in the final 20 minutes of action, including an electric two-hand slam to put Wake Forest up by four with less than 40 seconds remaining.
The duo were joined in double figures by freshman Juke Harris. Harris was the only player on either team to reach double digits through the opening 20 minutes, pouring in 11 of the Deacs' 34 points. The Salisbury, N.C. native also added a pair of first-half rebounds and a block.
Scoring over half their points from inside the paint, the Demon Deacons controlled the lane with 38 points inside the paint. Senior center Efton Reid III grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds, including six on the offensive end to pace Wake Forest on the glass.
With the win over the Wolverines (1-1, 0-0 Big Ten) Wake Forest has won the last three contests against sitting members of the Big Ten and are 7-3 over the last 10 against the Big Ten.
How It Happened
- Spillers opened up the scoring for the Demon Deacons.
- Sallis recorded his first points of the day off a jumper at the 17:05 mark.
- Sophomore Parker Friedrichsen added a putback layup on the next possession to cut the deficit down to two.
- The Wolverines went on a 10-0 run to take an 18-6 lead through just over eight minutes of game time.
- Out of a timeout, the Demon Deacons scored on three consecutive possessions.
- Freshman Juke Harris added his first basket of the game off a nice feed from Reid III.
- Sallis added his second field goal the next Demon Deacon possession.
- Reid III added a putback slam to make it 23-12.
- Harris exploded for a slam dunk for his second basket of the game with 8:09 left to go in the half.
- Following an emphatic block on the defensive end from Harris, Friedrichsen was fouled in transition, resulting in two free throws as the Deacs cut the deficit back down to single digits.
- Sophomore Omaha Biliew made the first three-pointer of the night for the Deacs to make it 25-19.
- Harris added another putback layup to cut the Wolverine lead down to four with 4:48 to go in the first half.
- Sallis and Hildreth connected on a beautiful and-1 alley-oop, as Sallis completed the three-point play from the line.
- Following a short run by Michigan, the Demon Deacons responded with a 10-0 run to make it 35-34.
- Hildreth made his first basket of the game to make it 35-26 with 1:30 left to play in the half.
- Harris added a pair of free throws on the next Demon Deacon possession.
- Harris made his first three of the game as the Deacs cut the Wolverine lead down to four.
- Transfer Davin Cosby made his first basket of the night with a three-pointer with three seconds to go.
- A buzzer-beater by Michigan put the Deacs behind 38-34 going into the half.
- Harris led the team in the first half with 11 points. He was the only player on either team to reach double-digits in the first half.
- The Demon Deacons ended the first half with four consecutive baskets on their way to a 10-3 run over the final 1:30.
- Spillers opened the scoring for the Demon Deacons on their first possession of the second half.
- Reid III made his first three of the game at the 17:23 mark to cut the Michigan lead to two.
- Hildreth's layup on the next Demon Deacon possession tied the game at 41-41.
- Spillers caught fire for Wake Forest, hitting three consecutive baskets to give the Demon Deacons a 49-47 lead.
- Spillers hits his first three of the game to give Wake Forest their first lead of the game.
- He added a driving layup the next Demon Deacon possession before adding his second three the next trip down the court.
- Following a short run by the Wolverines, the Demon Deacons scored on their next four possessions to tie the game at 57-57.
- Hildreth scored back-to-back baskets to cut the Michigan lead down to two.
- Sallis added a fast break jumper on the next possession.
- Spillers added a pair of free throws to tie the game at the halfway point of the second half.
- Reid III hit a contested hook shot with 8:51 left to play to give the Deacs a 59-57 advantage that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the contest.
- Out of the under-eight media timeout, Sallis made a pair of free throws.
- Sallis' floater with 6:09 left in the game extended the Demon Deacon run to 10-0.
- During the 10-0 run, the Deacs held Michigan without a point for 5:13.
- After a short run by the Wolverines, Sallis hit a jumper from the paint to extend the Wake Forest lead back to four.
- Spillers slammed home a transition dunk to give the Deacs a 67-63 lead with 40.8 seconds remaining, grabbing the steal on the way to an easy two.
- Friedrichsen made both of his free throws to extend the Demon Deacon lead to four with 21 seconds remaining.
- Sallis added one from the line to make it 70-67 with 9.2 seconds left.
- Out of a Michigan timeout, Sallis converted both of his free throws to extend the Wake Forest lead back to three with 4.7 seconds left on the clock.
- The Demon Deacons held on to win 72-70.
Stats of the Game
- The Wake Forest defense held the Wolverines to a 34.5% (10-29) shooting performance in the second half, including holding Michigan without a field goal for the final 3:48 of the contest and without a point over a 5:13 stretch with under 10 minutes remaining to grab the Deacs first lead of the contest.
- Wake Forest has won the last three contests against sitting members of the Big Ten and moved to 7-3 over the last 10 against the Big Ten:
| Opponent | Date | Result |
| Michigan | Nov. 10, 2024 | W, 72-70 |
| Rutgers | Dec. 6, 2023 | W, 76-57 |
| Wisconsin | Nov. 29, 2022 | W, 78-75 |
| Rutgers | Dec. 17, 2022 | L, 81-57 |
| Northwestern | Nov. 30, 2021 | W, 77-73 |
| Penn State | Dec. 4, 2019 | L, 75-54 |
| Illinois | Nov. 28, 2017 | W, 80-73 |
| Northwestern | Nov. 28, 2016 | L, 65-58 |
| Indiana | Nov. 23, 2015 | W, 82-78 |
| UCLA | Nov. 25, 2015 | W, 80-77 |
| Rutgers | Nov. 30, 2015 | W, 69-68 |
Key Moment
- The Demon Deacon offense came to life with 10:53 left to play as the Deacs went on a 10-0 run to give Wake Forest a six-point lead that they never relinquished. During the run, the Demon Deacon defense held Michigan without a point for 5:05 as the Wolverines went 0-for-10 during that span.
"I want to thank Michigan for agreeing to play this game. I think the world of Dusty [May] and always have. Watching them play before they came in today - he's got a really good team. I don't want to say I was nervous, but I could see a team that had a lot of confidence, played offense really well, and had great size. We played Alabama a couple of weeks ago and I thought 'Well there can't be anybody that plays offense as good as they play' and then I watched these guys. They have a really good team, and they're going to win a lot of games.
We built this team in the spring on gritty, grimy, tough and together. We felt like we had to get tougher to win these kinds of games. That showed today that these guys are a pretty tough minded group of guys. The game changed at the eight-minute mark, pretty much in the first half when Hunter went to the bench with two fouls. We finished the half, I think, with four kills. That's three stops in a row, four times, and then Juke really sparked us off the bench. He made some big plays in the second half, we continued to defend them, and they went 10 for 29 from the field and two for 16 from three, and had made, I think, eight threes in the first half. We turned them over 16 times and our defense was consistent. The threes they got early were off offensive rebounds, I don't really think they were off their initial set. We just didn't get the ball. They were beating this to the ball, to their credit, but we took them out of transition. During the second half, we played without fouling in a very physical game.
We stayed ahead of the play, and Efton Reid played 30 minutes. We hedged every ball screen, we only got beat on it maybe one time. Our guards did a great job at the hedge and taking away the short roll and then coming back to guard the ball. Offensively, we just kind of found a way. It took us some time, but the key was getting in the lane. We did a good job on offense and we were 1.5 points per possession when the ball got in lane for the game. Then we were 1.74 [points] in the second half. We did a much better job of finding a way to score, but when we weren't scoring, we played really good defense, and that carried us through the whole game. I'm really proud of my team for that." - head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest returns home for a midweek matchup against USC Upstate on Wednesday, Nov. 13, inside The Joel.
Tip is set for 7 p.m. and the game will air live on ACC Network Extra.
Team Stats
Mich
WF
FG%
.421
.464
3FG%
.303
.300
FT%
.800
.737
RB
33
33
TO
16
13
STL
5
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
18
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
6
Pts
16
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
11
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballFootball Media Availability (9/18/25)
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