Saturday, January 18
Blacksburg, VA
2:00 p.m.
Wake Forest University
14-4,6-1ACC
72
at
63
Virginia Tech
8-10,3-4ACC
1
2
F
Wake Forest
31
41
72
Virginia Tech
29
34
63
Sallis and Hildreth Lead Deacons Over Hokies for Fifth-Straight Victory
1/18/2025 5:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Wake Forest is on its longest ACC win streak since the 2004-05 season.
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Wake Forest men's basketball team (14-4, 6-1 ACC) earned its fifth-straight victory in ACC play on Saturday afternoon, defeating Virginia Tech 72-63 (8-10, 3-4 ACC) 72-63 at Cassell Coliseum. Now with five consecutive victories in conference play, the Demon Deacons have accumulated their longest ACC winning streak since the 2004-05 campaign.
Additionally, the Deacs have also won their last three conference road contests for the first time in 21 seasons and, with a 6-1 record in ACC play are off to their best start in conference play since 1996-97.
Hunter Sallis continued his play of scoring dominance, registering a game-high 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting. The senior guard has scored 20 or more points in the team's last seven showings. Saturday was also Sallis' tenth performance of 20-plus points in 2024-25. He also made an impact on the glass with seven rebounds in 38 minutes played.
Cameron Hildreth contributed 21 points, including an exceptional 53.8 field goal percentage (7-for 13). It was his third time notching 20-plus points this season, as he also went 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.
Ty-Laur Johnson was steady with eight points, three assists and three steals in eight minutes. Tre'Von Spillers' seven rebounds tied with Sallis as a team high, while Juke Harris added six points and three rebounds in 22 minutes.
Wake Forest tallied a collective 45.6 field goal percentage and outperformed Virginia Tech in both paint points (26-24) and second-chance points (16-8). Defensively, the Deacs finished with six steals and forced 14 turnovers while holding the Hokies to just under 32 percent shooting from distance.
How It Happened
Stats of the Game
Key Moment
Coach's Comments
"Right now we have a very locked-in and focused basketball team. You can tell those things in the 48 hours leading up to a game by how they prepare, how they hold themselves accountable and hold themselves to a standard. Then they get the game plan going in the game which was evident by the way we started the game. I believe we were 2-for-12 to start the game and we were pretty aggressive defensively against a team that is hard to guard defensively and has a lot of momentum right now. They've won three of their last four games and they're playing at home, but we didn't end the half right. They scored on eight of their last 13 possessions. Then they came out of the second half and gave up a four-point play and they scored five out of six times but we stopped them again. However, we were fouling too much. During the last couple of road games when we did that I went zone but I didn't want to do that today unless I had to, which we did late. Our defense cranked it down and did a better job today. We did a really good job executing against a defensive team that's really physical. We only turned the ball over seven times and made some tough physical plays in the lane. Between those turnovers and going 18-of-26 in the paint, I think that's what won us the game. Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth are just two very exceptional players who are fun to play with and are great teammates. All those things together add up to a win."
Up Next
Wake Forest returns to The Joel Coliseum for two Big Four matchups against Tobacco Road foes North Carolina and No. 3 Duke next week.
The Deacs will face the Tar Heels Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 9 pm and the game will air live on ESPN.
Wake will take on Duke Saturday, Jan. 25, at 4:30 pm with that game also airing on ESPN.
Both matchups are sold out.
Additionally, the Deacs have also won their last three conference road contests for the first time in 21 seasons and, with a 6-1 record in ACC play are off to their best start in conference play since 1996-97.
Hunter Sallis continued his play of scoring dominance, registering a game-high 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting. The senior guard has scored 20 or more points in the team's last seven showings. Saturday was also Sallis' tenth performance of 20-plus points in 2024-25. He also made an impact on the glass with seven rebounds in 38 minutes played.
Cameron Hildreth contributed 21 points, including an exceptional 53.8 field goal percentage (7-for 13). It was his third time notching 20-plus points this season, as he also went 6-of-8 from the free-throw line.
Ty-Laur Johnson was steady with eight points, three assists and three steals in eight minutes. Tre'Von Spillers' seven rebounds tied with Sallis as a team high, while Juke Harris added six points and three rebounds in 22 minutes.
Wake Forest tallied a collective 45.6 field goal percentage and outperformed Virginia Tech in both paint points (26-24) and second-chance points (16-8). Defensively, the Deacs finished with six steals and forced 14 turnovers while holding the Hokies to just under 32 percent shooting from distance.
How It Happened
- Reid got the Deacs on the board first with a left-wing three to put Wake up 3-0 to start the game.
- A baseline bank shot from Hildreth three plays later kept Wake in front 5-3.
- Sallis' first bucket came on a putback under the basket to extend Wake's lead to four.
- Sallis made it a six-point lead on the next play with a jumper in the lane.
- Out of the timeout, Johnson hit a stepback jumper to answer a Hokie three and keep the 11-6 lead.
- Hildreth hit a corner three to extend the lead to eight points with under 12 minutes to go in the first half.
- After Tech cut it to two, a jumper in the lane from Sallis extended the Wake lead back to four.
- Friedrichsen got his first points of the game off a layup from a sideline out-of-bounds to put Wake back up by six.
- On the next play Sallis hit a corner three for the Deacs' biggest lead of the game, 21-12, with eight minutes to go in the half.
- Reid hit his second three of the game from the top of the key for the 10-point lead.
- After a short Hokie run, Johnson hit two free throws to keep the Deacs in front by eight.
- After Tech cut it to four, Hildreth hit a fadeaway jumper from the left wing to put Wake back up by six.
- Hildreth then hit two free throws with five seconds left in the half.
- Wake Forest went into halftime with the 31-29 lead.
- Sallis led all scorers in the first half with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
- Sallis and Spillers each had three rebounds in the opening 20 minutes to lead the Deacs.
- The second half opened with Tech taking the 33-31 lead, but on the next play, Spillers converted the and-one for the 34-33 lead.
- A jumper from Sallis in the lane kept Wake within one, 37-36, after the Hokies retook the lead.
- Sallis cut the Hokies' four-point lead to one with a three from the right wing, 40-39.
- On the nex possession Hildreth made a driving layup for the one-point lead, 41-40.
- A corner three from Salli kept Wake in front, 44-43.
- Johnson hit a jumper off a baseline drive to put Wake up three.
- Sallis took it to the hoop on the next play for the 48-43 lead with 12 minutes left to play.
- A free throw from Hildreth and a jumper from Sallis put Wake up 51-47 with under nine minutes to go.
- Two free throws from Johnson made it a six-point Wake lead.
- Out of the timeout, Sallis found Spillers under the basket for a bucket and the six-point lead.
- Hildreth hit a backdown jumper two possessions later to keep the lead.
- Hildreth took it to the hoop himself again out of the timeout to extend the lead to eight points.
- The next play was Harris taking it in off a baseline out-of-bounds for the bucket to keep the eight-point lead.
- A stepback jumper from Hildreth on the next possession maintained Wake's lead with under five minutes to play.
- Another bucket from Harris put Wake up 65-58 with 2:34 left to go.
- Virginia Tech cut it to 65-61 with 1:20 to play.
- Two free throws from Hildreth got the lead back to six with under a minute to go.
- On the next possession Sallis took it to the basket for the eight point lead with under 30 seconds remaining.
- Harris hit two free throws with under 20 seconds to go to make it a 10-point lead.
- Wake Forest defeated Virginia Tech, 72-63.
Stats of the Game
- The Deacs had a solid shooting performance against the Hokies, connecting on 26-of-57 shots (46 percent) on the day, including going 15-for-29 (51.7 percent) in the second half.
- Cameron Hildreth scored 21 points on the day – his third-best total in a conference matchup this season.
- Wake Forest forced Virginia Tech into 14 turnovers – its sixth straight performance of 12 or more turnovers forced.
Key Moment
- Up two with just over nine minutes remaining in the second half, Sallis pulled up for a mid-range jump shot to up the score to 51-47. Johnson then drew contact for two free throws. A possession later, Sallis found Tre'Von Spillers under the basket with a nice dime, creating a six-point lead before the under-8 media timeout.
Coach's Comments
"Right now we have a very locked-in and focused basketball team. You can tell those things in the 48 hours leading up to a game by how they prepare, how they hold themselves accountable and hold themselves to a standard. Then they get the game plan going in the game which was evident by the way we started the game. I believe we were 2-for-12 to start the game and we were pretty aggressive defensively against a team that is hard to guard defensively and has a lot of momentum right now. They've won three of their last four games and they're playing at home, but we didn't end the half right. They scored on eight of their last 13 possessions. Then they came out of the second half and gave up a four-point play and they scored five out of six times but we stopped them again. However, we were fouling too much. During the last couple of road games when we did that I went zone but I didn't want to do that today unless I had to, which we did late. Our defense cranked it down and did a better job today. We did a really good job executing against a defensive team that's really physical. We only turned the ball over seven times and made some tough physical plays in the lane. Between those turnovers and going 18-of-26 in the paint, I think that's what won us the game. Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth are just two very exceptional players who are fun to play with and are great teammates. All those things together add up to a win."
Up Next
Wake Forest returns to The Joel Coliseum for two Big Four matchups against Tobacco Road foes North Carolina and No. 3 Duke next week.
The Deacs will face the Tar Heels Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 9 pm and the game will air live on ESPN.
Wake will take on Duke Saturday, Jan. 25, at 4:30 pm with that game also airing on ESPN.
Both matchups are sold out.
Team Stats
WF
VT
FG%
.456
.404
3FG%
.316
.316
FT%
.824
.789
RB
29
35
TO
7
14
STL
6
2
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
24
FGM
10
3FGM
3
FTM
1
Pts
21
FGM
7
3FGM
1
FTM
6
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
4
Pts
6
FGM
2
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Players Mentioned
G
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