Wednesday, January 15
Winston-Salem, N.C.
6:30 p.m.
Wake Forest University
13-4,5-1ACC
80
vs
67
Stanford
11-6,3-3ACC
1
2
F
Stanford
35
32
67
Wake Forest
33
47
80
Photo by: Seth Seebaugh
Sallis Goes for 30 Points in Home Victory over Stanford
1/15/2025 9:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Deacs have now won four games in a row and are a perfect 9-0 at home.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Making a return to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in a midweek appearance, Wake Forest men's basketball hosted ACC newcomer Stanford on Wednesday evening. The Demon Deacons (13-4, 5-1 ACC) showcased impressive play and poise down the stretch, ultimately downing the Cardinal (11-6, 3-3 ACC) in an 80-67 victory.
Wake Forest extended its ongoing win streak to four games and remains perfect at home, now holding a 9-0 record. The Deacs join No. 3 Duke as the only ACC teams to be unbeaten on their home courts this season.
Playing all 40 minutes, Hunter Sallis led all scorers with 30 points – his second performance of 30 or more this season. The Omaha native shot 12-of-17 from the floor and made three of five three-pointers taken. Sallis has now scored 20-plus points in each of his last six showings – the longest stretch in his collegiate career.
Tre'Von Spillers tied his career high in points (18) while adding 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of 2024-25. Fellow senior Cameron Hildreth chipped in 12 points while going a perfect 10-for-10 at the free-throw line. Defensively, he and Ty-Laur Johnson collected three steals apiece. Efton Reid III finished with nine points and five rebounds in 28 minutes played.
In a similar fashion to its win at Miami this past Saturday, Wake Forest connected on all cylinders during the second half against Stanford, going 17-of-26 in their field goal attempts (65.4 percent) through the final 20 minutes. For the game, Wake Forest totaled a 50.0 field goal percentage (29-for-58).
The Deacs forced 13 turnovers while only giving up six. The team also had eight steals and three blocks.
How It Happened
Stats of the Game
Key Moment
Coach's Comments
"Credit to Kyle [Smith] and Stanford. They came in here ready to play. They got off to a great start by making six of their first eight shots. A couple of those were highly contested. When the big fella threw in a left-handed hook shot from 14 feet, I knew this was going to be a tough night, but then we settled in defensively. From 15:38 to 2:44 we stopped them and they were 5-of-20 from the field, so we got after them defensively and got a couple kills. We did a really good job of not fouling them and putting them at the line in the second half. They have made more free throws in league play than some teams have attempted against them, and they shoot 90 percent from the free-throw line. We made some adjustments at halftime, especially on how we defended the ball screen. That really helped. The most important thing was the job we did against the big guy, Maxime Raynaud. We made him into a three-point shooter. He only had one post-up the entire game. We doubled him and got it out of his hands. He got some offensive rebounds, but he's everything as advertised.
We got in the lane in the first half, we just shot 38 percent from two. We shot 76 percent in the second half and that made a big difference. When we played with more speed in the second half, you could see what happened. We got them where we wanted to be and we moved the ball a lot more and we cut more. Obviously, Hunter [Sallis] is on a heater right now. Tre'Von [Spillers] was awesome. Cameron [Hildreth] didn't shoot it well, but he was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. Ty-Laur [Johnson] did a good job of running our team. It was a good team win." - head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest will get back on the road to face the Virginia Tech Hokies in Blacksburg on Saturday, Jan. 18.
Tip is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will air live on ACC Network.
Wake Forest extended its ongoing win streak to four games and remains perfect at home, now holding a 9-0 record. The Deacs join No. 3 Duke as the only ACC teams to be unbeaten on their home courts this season.
Playing all 40 minutes, Hunter Sallis led all scorers with 30 points – his second performance of 30 or more this season. The Omaha native shot 12-of-17 from the floor and made three of five three-pointers taken. Sallis has now scored 20-plus points in each of his last six showings – the longest stretch in his collegiate career.
Tre'Von Spillers tied his career high in points (18) while adding 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of 2024-25. Fellow senior Cameron Hildreth chipped in 12 points while going a perfect 10-for-10 at the free-throw line. Defensively, he and Ty-Laur Johnson collected three steals apiece. Efton Reid III finished with nine points and five rebounds in 28 minutes played.
In a similar fashion to its win at Miami this past Saturday, Wake Forest connected on all cylinders during the second half against Stanford, going 17-of-26 in their field goal attempts (65.4 percent) through the final 20 minutes. For the game, Wake Forest totaled a 50.0 field goal percentage (29-for-58).
The Deacs forced 13 turnovers while only giving up six. The team also had eight steals and three blocks.
How It Happened
- After a quick start for The Cardinal, two free throws from Reid got the Deacs on the board, 5-2.
- The next offensive possession ended with a Sallis jumper in the lane to make it 8-4, Cardinal.
- Two plays later Hildreth found Reid in the paint for a bucket.
- Reid converted the and-one to cut the deficit to six, 13-7.
- A block by Spillers on the defensive end led to a bucket by Spillers on the next play.
- The Deacs scored three possessions in a row after a Hildreth jumper to make it 15-11.
- Johnson made it four straight possessions after driving the baseline for a layup.
- Reid ended a scoring drought for the Deacs with a backdown bucket from the baseline to make it 21-15, Cardinal.
- A jumper by Spillers kept the deficit at six.
- Two free throws from Hildreth and a three from Sallis got Wake within one, 23-22 with 5:38 to go in the half.
- Another three from Sallis on the next possession kept Wake within one, 26-25.
- Johnson tied it at 27 with a jumper outside the lane.
- Two free throws from Spillers kept it tied at 29 and a jumper on the wing from Sallis tied it back at 31 with a minute to go in the half.
- Sallis' fifth bucket of the game ended the half with Stanford up two, 35-33.
- Sallis led the Demon Deacons with 12 points heading into the locker room.
- Spillers led all players with six rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
- The Deacs tied the game right out of half after Reid connected on a hook shot in the paint.
- Spillers would tie it back up at 37 on a dunk off the feed from Johnson.
- After a short Cardinal run, Hildreth sunk both of his free throws to cut the deficit down to two.
- Freshman Juke Harris converted an alley-oop from Johnson to tie the game at 41-41 with 15:57 left to play.
- Coming out of the timeout, Spillers hit another hook shot to tie the game at 43.
- Harris hit one free throw to cut the Stanford lead down to one.
- Hildreth added two more from the charity stripe the next possession.
- Spillers finished a putback layup to cut the Stanford lead down to two with 11:40 left to play.
- After blocking a shot on the other end, Sallis scored his first points of the second half to tie the game at 50, forcing a Stanford timeout.
- Out of the timeout, Sallis answered a Stanford bucket with one of his own to keep it tied at 52.
- Two free throws from Sallis kept it tied at 54 with 9:30 to go.
- Sallis extended his run to six straight points for the 56-54 lead.
- The Sallis streak continued to eight straight points for the 58-56 lead.
- Out of a timeout, Johnson sank a stepback jumper for the four-point lead.
- On the next possession, Sallis hit his 10th field goal of the game to keep the four-point lead.
- After Stanford cut it to one, Sallis found Spillers in the paint for a bucket to go up three with 5:30 remaining.
- Another Spillers bucket in the lane kept the three-point Wake lead with under five minutes left to play.
- Spillers extended his personal run to six straight points and the five-point lead.
- Sallis hit a stepback three at the shot clock buzzer to extend Wake's lead, 71-65.
- Continuing to take over offensively, Sallis came down the floor on the next possession for the driving jumper and the and-one conversion for the nine-point Wake lead with just over two minutes remaining.
- A bucket from Johnson maintained the nine-point Wake lead with just over a minute to go.
- Two free throws from Hildreth gave the Deacs their first double-digit lead with 50 seconds to go, 78-67.
- Hildreth hit two more from the line on the next possession to extend the lead.
- Wake Forest defeated Stanford, 80-67.
Stats of the Game
- Senior Tre'Von Spillers recorded his fifth double-double of the season, finishing the game with 18 points and 10 rebounds against the Cardinal.
- With his 30-point performance against the Cardinal, senior Hunter Sallis has now scored 20-or-more points in six-consecutive games, averaging 24.7 points per game during that streak.
- Senior Cameron Hildreth eclipsed the 500-rebound mark for his career, taking place at the 1:25 mark of the second half.
Key Moment
- Leading 64-63 with 5:17 remaining in the game, the Demon Deacons closed out the game on a 16-4 run, highlighted by an and-one by senior Hunter Sallis with 2:24 left to give the Deacs a nine-point advantage.
Coach's Comments
"Credit to Kyle [Smith] and Stanford. They came in here ready to play. They got off to a great start by making six of their first eight shots. A couple of those were highly contested. When the big fella threw in a left-handed hook shot from 14 feet, I knew this was going to be a tough night, but then we settled in defensively. From 15:38 to 2:44 we stopped them and they were 5-of-20 from the field, so we got after them defensively and got a couple kills. We did a really good job of not fouling them and putting them at the line in the second half. They have made more free throws in league play than some teams have attempted against them, and they shoot 90 percent from the free-throw line. We made some adjustments at halftime, especially on how we defended the ball screen. That really helped. The most important thing was the job we did against the big guy, Maxime Raynaud. We made him into a three-point shooter. He only had one post-up the entire game. We doubled him and got it out of his hands. He got some offensive rebounds, but he's everything as advertised.
We got in the lane in the first half, we just shot 38 percent from two. We shot 76 percent in the second half and that made a big difference. When we played with more speed in the second half, you could see what happened. We got them where we wanted to be and we moved the ball a lot more and we cut more. Obviously, Hunter [Sallis] is on a heater right now. Tre'Von [Spillers] was awesome. Cameron [Hildreth] didn't shoot it well, but he was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. Ty-Laur [Johnson] did a good job of running our team. It was a good team win." - head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest will get back on the road to face the Virginia Tech Hokies in Blacksburg on Saturday, Jan. 18.
Tip is set for 2:00 p.m. and the game will air live on ACC Network.
Team Stats
Stan
WF
FG%
.444
.500
3FG%
.333
.273
FT%
.786
.792
RB
28
30
TO
13
6
STL
4
8
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
30
FGM
12
3FGM
3
FTM
3
Pts
18
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
1
3FGM
0
FTM
10
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
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