Balanced Attack Leads Wake Forest Past North Carolina A&T

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Behind five Demon Deacons in double figures, the Wake Forest men's basketball team earned their 50th win inside Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum since the start of the 2021-22 season, using a strong second half performance to defeat North Carolina A&T, 80-64, on Thursday evening.

Leading the Demon Deacons offensively with 15 points on a 7-for-14 (50.0 percent) shooting effort, senior forward Tre'von Spillers recorded his first double-double as a Demon Deacon, matching his career-high with 16 rebounds. The Charleston, S.C. native was active on the glass all night, pulling in the most rebounds by a Wake Forest student-athlete since Olivier Sarr's 17 against Notre Dame on Feb. 29, 2020.

Senior guard Hunter Sallis crept closer to the 1,000 career point mark as the Omaha, Nebraska native now sits just 62 points from the milestone as he finished just behind Spillers with 14 points of his own.

All five Demon Deacon starters finished the game with double-digit scoring nights, as seniors Efton Reid III and Cameron Hildreth recorded 12 and 11 points respectively, while sophomore Parker Freidrichsen finished the game with 10 points.

Wake Forest was dominant on the glass, outrebounding the Aggies by a 49-29 margin, leading to 38 points in the paint while holding NC A&T to just 16 points in the lane. The 49 rebounds for the Demon Deacons marked the most since collecting 53 vs. Florida State on Jan. 4, 2022.

Sophomore Churchill Abass also made his first appearance in a Wake Forest uniform, as the Edo State, Nigeria native recorded a rebound in the final minute for the Deacs.

How It Happened

Reid III opened the scoring for the Deacs on the opening possession, converting a tough finish in the post before sinking the free-throw on the and-1 to make it 3-0.
Spillers added his first basket of the game two minutes later to make it 5-2.
After another basket by Reid III in the paint, the Deacs turned defense into offense as Sallis slammed home a transition dunk to make it 9-5.
Spillers added Wake's first three of the game on the next Demon Deacon possession to make it 12-7 at the 16:20 mark in the first.
Following a 9-0 run from the Aggies, Sallis found an open Spillers to cut the deficit down to 17-14.
Out of the timeout, the Deacs would go on an 11-2 run of their own to retake a 25-23 advantage.
- Sophomore guard Davin Cosby hit his first three of the game with 11:03 left in the half.
- Sallis would record his second field goal of the game two possessions later.
- Spillers slammed home a putback dunk on the next Wake possession to tie the game at 21-21.
- Reid III continued his strong play in the paint, adding a layup to grab the lead for the Deacs.
- Sophomore guard Ty-Laur Johnson hit his first shot of the game to cap off the Wake Forest run.
Following a NC A&T run, Sallis added a pair of free throws to cut the Aggie lead to two.
- Hildreth connected on a pair from the charity stripe to tie the game at 29-29 with 5:03 left in the half.
Following a defensive stop, Friedrichsen hit his first three-pointer of the contest as the Deacs retook the lead 32-29 with 3:27 left in the opening half.
Biliew added his first basket of the night with a dunk off a dime from freshman forward Juke Harris.
- Harris nailed the first three-pointer of his collegiate career on the next possession to extend the Wake lead to 37-31, forcing an A&T timeout.
Continuing to spark the Deacs, Harris hit a fade-away jump shot with the shot clock running down to push the Wake Forest lead to 39-33 heading into halftime.
- Tre'Von Spillers led the Demon Deacons with nine points and seven rebounds in the first half.
- The Deacs ended the opening half on a 14-4 run, holding the Aggies to just one field goal over the final 6:19.
The Demon Deacon offense exploded coming out of the half as they scored on their first four possessions as part of a 10-0 run.
- Reid III opened the scoring with a layup on the Deacs first possession.
- Spillers recorded his own layup on the next possession to move into double figures.
- Hildreth hit a tough layup and the following free throw to extend the Demon Deacon lead to 13, converting on the and-1 to get Wake Forest fans on their feet.
- Friedrichsen hit his second three of the game in transition to make it a 49-33 ball game as the Aggies called timeout less than two minutes into the second half.
Coming out of the timeout, Sallis added a pair of free throws to make it 51-35.
- Sallis would find a cutting Spillers for a driving dunk three plays later to give the Deacs an 18-point lead 3:53 into the half.
Ending a short run by the Aggies, Cosby hit his second three of the night with 13:36 left in the half.
- Hildreth would add a crafty layup on the next Wake Forest possession.
Sallis added a pair of free throws following a timeout to extend the lead to 60-43.
- Friedrichsen added two free throws of his own the following possession.
- Cosby added one from the line the following possession to give the Deacs a 20-point lead with 10:30 minutes left.
Hildreth added a fadeaway jumper to make it 65-46.
After a timeout, Hildreth added another pair from the charity stripe to give the Deacs a 19-point lead.
After the Aggies cut the Demon Deacon lead down to 14, Johnson and Spillers connected on an alley-oop in transition to make it 69-53.
Johnson hit a pair of free throws with under five minutes to go.
- Reid III regained the 14-point lead the next possession after converting a layup plus the foul.
Out of the final media timeout, Friedrichsen converted a pair from the line to extend the Wake Forest lead to 16.
- Sallis hit a touch jumper two possessions later.
- The Deacs transitioned defense into offense once again as Hildreth's steal resulted in a transition slam by Sallis to put the Deacs up 80-62.
Churchill Abass made his Wake Forest debut, entering the game with 39.3 seconds remaining and recording his first rebound in the Old Gold & Black.
Wake Forest closed out the game to win 80-64.

Stats of the Game

With his 16 boards, Spillers became the first Demon Deacon to have 15+ rebounds since Oliver Barr had 17 against Notre Dame on Feb. 29, 2020.
Wake Forest hauled in 49 rebounds as a team, which is the most rebounds recorded since the Demon Deacons hauled in 53 against Florida State during the 2021-22 season.

Key Moment

Holding on to a six-point advantage at the half, the Demon Deacons all but put the game away in the first two minutes of the second half. Parker Friedrichsen's transition three-pointer off a Cameron Hildreth steal capped off a 10-0 run, extending the Wake Forest lead to 49-33, as the Deacs came out of the locker room on fire to start the final 20 minutes of play.

Coach's Comments
"Thanks to everyone that came out tonight for the game. I give credit to [NC] A&T and Coach Ross and his team, they came ready to play like I knew they would. He's got some really good players and they're going to have a good year. They've got three really good guards, I know two of them, Glasper and Shell played for my good friend Jay Herkleman at Coffeyville. He texted me today and told me they would take a lot of shots. Glasper got off 29 rounds – that's a lot of shots – so he was telling the truth. They came ready to play, they came right at us and they hurt us in transition early. They scored 17 points in transition at halftime but they only had six in the second. That was the big difference for us.

We had nine kills in the game, six in the second half, outrebounded them plus 20, only gave up six offensive rebounds, and only gave up 16 points in the paint by our numbers. That's where our defense is being built, so I was very encouraged once again how hard our guys played defensively. They played really hard. On offense we went to Efton [Reid III] early to try to get him going and to try to get some pressure on the rim and he did a good job with that. Efton and Tre Spillers were 11 for 16 from the 2-point line and Tre had a double-double with 15 and 16 – he plays so hard. We did a good job pushing the ball in transition and creating quality open shots. Juke Harris was big for us coming off the bench in the first half, he was plus 8 in the first half, he really played well. We encourage our guys to shoot catch-and-shoot threes off penetration and I would say about 90 percent of those were threes. There were maybe a couple dribble threes in there, but not a lot. It was nice to see Parker [Friedrichsen] make a couple and get going. Obviously the biggest problem on offense is 19 turnovers. That's not acceptable and there were nine of them by two people. We have to get that fixed by Sunday or it will be tough. We had 15 assists on 27 baskets, so we were moving the ball pretty well and we could probably move the ball even more and we'll continue to do that as we grow as a team." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest faces its first high-major opponent this weekend in the Michigan Wolverines. The Deacon-Wolverine Challenge will take place in the newly-minted First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro on Sunday, Nov. 10.

Tip is set for 1 p.m. and the game will air live on ESPN2.

Balanced Attack Leads Wake Forest Past North Carolina A&T

Next Event

Team Stats

Tre'Von Spillers

Hunter Sallis

Efton Reid III

Cameron Hildreth

Players Mentioned

Churchill Abass

Davin Cosby

Parker Friedrichsen

Juke Harris

Cameron Hildreth

Ty-Laur Johnson

Efton Reid III

Hunter Sallis

Tre'Von Spillers

Wake Forest Athletics

Balanced Attack Leads Wake Forest Past North Carolina A&T

Related News

Next Event

Team Stats

Game Leaders

Tre'Von Spillers

Hunter Sallis

Efton Reid III

Cameron Hildreth

Players Mentioned

Churchill Abass

Davin Cosby

Parker Friedrichsen

Juke Harris

Cameron Hildreth

Ty-Laur Johnson

Efton Reid III

Hunter Sallis

Tre'Von Spillers

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