Saturday, January 4
Winston-Salem, N.C.
12 p.m.
Wake Forest University
11-4,3-1ACC
77
vs
59
NC State
8-6,1-2ACC
1
2
F
NC State
32
27
59
Wake Forest
38
39
77
Photo by: Seth Seebaugh
Harris Goes for Career High, Deacons Maintain Control in Big Four Victory over NC State
1/4/2025 3:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Wake Forest moved to 8-0 this season inside LJVM Coliseum during Saturday afternoon.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest men's basketball opened the New Year with its first Big Four matchup of the 2024-25 season, hosting the NC State Wolfpack (8-6, 1-2 ACC) on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 4). The Demon Deacons (11-4, 3-1 ACC) impressed with two-way play, including efficient shooting, for the entire 40 minutes en route to taking a comfortable 77-59 victory.
The win saw the Deacs improve their season home record to an undefeated 8-0 clip. Wake Forest has started 8-0 or better at home for four consecutive seasons dating back to the 2021-22 season, with the team starting 10-0 or better in each of the last three seasons.
Freshman guard Juke Harris gave his squad a major boost in the first half, scoring 14 of his career-high 17 points. For the game, the Salisbury, N.C. native went 6-of-8 from the floor and grabbed five rebounds in nearly 28 minutes of action.
Hunter Sallis led all individuals in scoring, finishing with 20 points on the day. The senior guard added five rebounds and three assists while totaling a 57.1 field goal percentage.
Tre'Von Spillers controlled the paint for the Deacons on both ends, posting a line of 12 points, five rebounds and four blocks – the latter of which tied his career high. Making his second consecutive start, Ty-Laur Johnson contributed nine points and four assists in 38 minutes – the most minutes played in his young career.
As a group, Wake Forest shot the ball exceptionally well, notching its best single-game field goal percentage of the season thus far (54.9 percent).
How It Happened
Stats of the Game
Key Moment
Coach's Comments
"There were a couple of things going into the game that we really thought were important for us to win. They are averaging 18 points per game in transition, which is eighth in the country. We wanted to hold them nine or under and we held them to 10. They're also averaging 13 offensive rebounds per game in their wins and we held them to nine. We turned them over 13 times in a low possession game. That makes it awfully hard for them to score. We played outstanding defense the entire game. Tre'Von Spillers had four blocks and it seemed like he had more than that. We went to the zone after we got in a little foul trouble and they went 5-for-14. That really helped us. We played a little iffy at the end.
Juke [Harris] came in and just played outstanding. The way he has been practicing has been great. He drove, he cut, played the two, and played with balance. He just competed. He defended with physicality. That Styles kid was a handful. He's a really good player and Juke did a really good job guarding him. Ty-laur [Johnson] handled the pressure really well. His first turnover came in the second half. My only criticism would be that the ball got a little sticky at times on offense, especially when we tried to drive the ball from the top, which is never good. Maybe Hunter [Sallis] can once in a while just because he's such a good individual offensive player. That kind of hurt us, but we were still 17-of-22 in the paint.We got in the lane 49 times and scored on 33 of them.
Before the game, I said that the game has to look like practice. We have had some really good practices since Christmas, and we're playing like it. We played 10 games to open the season and we only had 16 practices. This team needed practice to kind of find themselves.
A lot has been said about our numbers on offense and all these analytical things when we started the season. In December and January during the ACC, we have been shooting 48 percent from the field and 37 from three and 76 percent from the line. Those are winning numbers. Teams are shooting 38 percent against us. That's a 10 percent difference. Now, we have to continue down that path. We just have a lot of guys that are playing a lot better." - head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest will have no midweek game to start January, but will travel to Miami, Florida, to face the Hurricanes on Saturday, Jan. 11.
Tip is set for 5:15 p.m. and will air live on The CW.
The win saw the Deacs improve their season home record to an undefeated 8-0 clip. Wake Forest has started 8-0 or better at home for four consecutive seasons dating back to the 2021-22 season, with the team starting 10-0 or better in each of the last three seasons.
Freshman guard Juke Harris gave his squad a major boost in the first half, scoring 14 of his career-high 17 points. For the game, the Salisbury, N.C. native went 6-of-8 from the floor and grabbed five rebounds in nearly 28 minutes of action.
Hunter Sallis led all individuals in scoring, finishing with 20 points on the day. The senior guard added five rebounds and three assists while totaling a 57.1 field goal percentage.
Tre'Von Spillers controlled the paint for the Deacons on both ends, posting a line of 12 points, five rebounds and four blocks – the latter of which tied his career high. Making his second consecutive start, Ty-Laur Johnson contributed nine points and four assists in 38 minutes – the most minutes played in his young career.
As a group, Wake Forest shot the ball exceptionally well, notching its best single-game field goal percentage of the season thus far (54.9 percent).
How It Happened
- Reid got the Deacs up 2-0 in the first 30 seconds with a jumper right outside of the paint.
- The next offensive possession ended in a Sallis jumper from the left wing for the 4-3 lead.
- Sallis got the steal and the bucket on the next play to keep Wake in front.
- Two free throws from Hildreth made it a five-point lead for the Deacs.
- Spillers got on the board on the next possession with a jumper in the lane to put the Deacs on an 8-0 run and give them the 10-3 lead.
- The Demon Deacon defense held the Pack scoreless for over three minutes.
- Two free throws from Johnson made it a 10-1 run and an eight-point lead.
- Harris hit his first three pointer from the right wing to extend the run 13-1 and give Wake the 15-4 lead.
- After an NC State timeout, Sallis hit his first three of the game from the same spot as Harris for the 18-4 lead and kept the 16-1 run alive.
- The Deacs held the Pack without a field goal for over six minutes of game time.
- Out of the timeout, Harris finished a scrappy possession with a dunk for the 21-10 lead.
- Two possessions later, Harris had a putback to keep Wake in front by double-digits.
- Harris hit two free throws on the next possession for the 25-7 lead.
- The next play saw Friedrichsen hit his first three of the game from the right wing to put Wake back up by 11 points.
- Johnson found Spillers under the basket to end an NC State run and keep the Deacs up 30-26.
- Hildreth fed Harris in the lane for the bucket and Harris got the rebound on the defensive end to keep Wake's lead.
- Out of the timeout, Johnson found Spillers wide open in the paint for the dunk and the 34-29 lead with 2:30 to go in the half.
- Hildreth found Harris on a baseline pass for the bucket on the next possession.
- Hildreth took it to the basket himself on the next play for the six-point lead with under a minute left in the half.
- Wake Forest went into halftime with the 38-32 lead.
- Harris led all scorers with 14 first-half points and a team-high four rebounds.
- Hildreth found Spillers under the basket for the Deacs' first bucket of the second half.
- Sallis hit a three from the left wing on the next possession to extend the Deacs' lead to seven.
- Johnson went 2-of-2 from the free throw line out of the timeout to keep the six-point lead.
- On the next possession Sallis took it to the basket to maintain the lead.
- Reid converted an and-one opportunity to make it a nine-point lead with 14 minutes to go in the game.
- Two possessions later Sallis battled his way to the paint for the jumper.
- An offensive rebound from Reid led to a three-pointer from Johnson and the Deacs got back in front by double digits, 55-43, with 12:11 left to go.
- Out of the timeout, Sallis hit two free throws to make it a 14-point lead.
- Another jumper from Sallis kept the Deacs' lead at 14.
- The Demon Deacon defense held NC State without a field goal for over four minutes of game time.
- Spillers got a putback bucket off a Johnson drive to keep Wake in front.
- Johnson took it to the basket on the next possession to make it a 16-point game with 7:30 left to play.
- Hildreth found Harris in the paint for a slam out of the timeout.
- Spillers made a hook shot off the feed from Friedrichsen the next possession.
- Friedrichsen made his second three-pointer of the night to extend the Deacs' lead to 20.
- Sallis turned defense to offense on the next possession, converting a jumper following a block to force a timeout.
- Two free throws from Hildreth out of the timeout made it a 21-point lead with 3:05 left to play.
- Wake Forest defeated NC State, 77-59.
Stats of the Game
- Shooting 28-for-51 (54.9 percent) from the field during the win, Saturday featured Wake Forest's best shooting performance since last season's home win over Clemson (March 9, 2024), when the Deacs shot 58 percent.
- Defensively, Wake Forest forced 13 turnovers and scooped five steals.
- Four Deacons grabbed five rebounds:
Key Moment
- Leading 43-39 early in the second half, the Demon Deacons went on a 14-4 run over a 3:25 stretch, capped off by a Ty-Laur Johnson three-pointer and two Hunter Sallis free throws following an NC State technical foul, giving the Deacs a double-digit lead.
Coach's Comments
"There were a couple of things going into the game that we really thought were important for us to win. They are averaging 18 points per game in transition, which is eighth in the country. We wanted to hold them nine or under and we held them to 10. They're also averaging 13 offensive rebounds per game in their wins and we held them to nine. We turned them over 13 times in a low possession game. That makes it awfully hard for them to score. We played outstanding defense the entire game. Tre'Von Spillers had four blocks and it seemed like he had more than that. We went to the zone after we got in a little foul trouble and they went 5-for-14. That really helped us. We played a little iffy at the end.
Juke [Harris] came in and just played outstanding. The way he has been practicing has been great. He drove, he cut, played the two, and played with balance. He just competed. He defended with physicality. That Styles kid was a handful. He's a really good player and Juke did a really good job guarding him. Ty-laur [Johnson] handled the pressure really well. His first turnover came in the second half. My only criticism would be that the ball got a little sticky at times on offense, especially when we tried to drive the ball from the top, which is never good. Maybe Hunter [Sallis] can once in a while just because he's such a good individual offensive player. That kind of hurt us, but we were still 17-of-22 in the paint.We got in the lane 49 times and scored on 33 of them.
Before the game, I said that the game has to look like practice. We have had some really good practices since Christmas, and we're playing like it. We played 10 games to open the season and we only had 16 practices. This team needed practice to kind of find themselves.
A lot has been said about our numbers on offense and all these analytical things when we started the season. In December and January during the ACC, we have been shooting 48 percent from the field and 37 from three and 76 percent from the line. Those are winning numbers. Teams are shooting 38 percent against us. That's a 10 percent difference. Now, we have to continue down that path. We just have a lot of guys that are playing a lot better." - head coach Steve Forbes
Up Next
Wake Forest will have no midweek game to start January, but will travel to Miami, Florida, to face the Hurricanes on Saturday, Jan. 11.
Tip is set for 5:15 p.m. and will air live on The CW.
Team Stats
NCSU
WF
FG%
.400
.549
3FG%
.308
.375
FT%
.714
.789
RB
25
31
TO
13
11
STL
3
5
Game Leaders
Pts
20
FGM
8
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
17
FGM
6
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Pts
12
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
4
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's Basketball
F/C
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
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