Deacs Fall to Seminoles in Midweek Showing

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest men's basketball (18-7, 10-4 ACC) returned to its home floor on Wednesday evening, hosting Florida State (15-9, 6-7 ACC) in a midweek matchup. The Demon Deacons ultimately fell short in a 72-70 finish.

Senior guards Cameron Hildreth and Hunter Sallis led the Deacs with 22 and 20 points, respectively, with both shooting over 50 percent from the floor. Sallis also chipped in six rebounds and three steals.

Senior Efton Reid III pulled down 10 rebounds, his second-best total in conference play, to go along with eight points. Senior Tre'Von Spillers pieced together a line of 13 points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. Freshman Juke Harris added seven points off the bench.

For the game, Wake Forest shot 47.3 percent from the floor. Defensively, the team's defense forced nine turnovers while collecting four steals.

How It Happened

Shortly after picking up his first steal of the evening, Tre'Von Spillers scored the first Wake points of the night.
Omaha Biliew – who returned to the court at Cal on Saturday – checked into the contest less than four minutes into the first half, marking his first appearance at LJVM since the Deacs' Nov. 7 victory over North Carolina A&T.
Hunter Sallis picked up his first points of the evening on a monstrous dunk, postering the Florida State defender before converting on an and-one attempt to cut an early Wake Forest deficit to 9-6.
Spillers would be fouled on the Deacs' next trip down the court, as the Charleston, S.C., native hit on both of his free throw attempts.
Efton Reid III would get his first points of the night with 12:16 remaining in the first half, hauling in an offensive board before scoring.
The Demon Deacons went on an extended 14-0 run over a 3:30 span to take a 24-13 lead.
- Hildreth tied the contest at 13-13, swishing his first three point attempt of the evening.
- On the next offensive possession, Juke Harris' three-point play gave the Deacs their first lead of the evening, 16-13.
- Hildreth created space with a step back jumper in the lane to give the Deacs an 8-0 run.
- The run was extended to 11-0, as passes from Sallis to Reid to Spillers left the senior open alone in the corner.
- Sallis would swish another Demon Deacon three, moving the run to 14-0 as Wake took a double-digit lead at 24-13.
After Florida State cut the Wake Forest lead down to seven, the Deacs went on a 9-2 run to make it 33-19.
- Harris slammed it home with a dunk to make it 26-17.
- Spillers added a jumper to give the Deacs a nine-point advantage.
- Hildreth rattled off back-to-back baskets, including another swish from downtown, giving the Deacs a 33-19 lead.
Reid added another emphatic slam to give the Deacs a 35-21 lead at halftime.
- Hildreth led all scorers with 10 points.
Hildreth scored the first Wake points in the second half to push his game total to 12.
Sallis reached the 10-point mark with a made three on his first attempt out of the break.
Wake stopped a 9-0 Florida State run with a tough and-one from Hildreth, fighting through contact to make a layup before converting on his free throw attempt.
- The Deacs' lead returned to double digits at 47-37.
Spillers became the third Demon Deacon to reach double figures in scoring, as he was on the receiving end of a lob from Sallis.
- This is the seventh time in ACC play Spillers has scored 10 or more points this season.
Hildreth once again earned three points, as he was fouled on another successful layup attempt and hit from the charity stripe.
- The Worthing, England, native would add to his point total 43 seconds later with a three from the corner for his fourth-straight 20-point performance.
A Spillers slam ended a scoring drought for Wake Forest and put the Deacs back in front by nine, 63-54.
Sallis reached the 20-point mark with a pair of free throws with 2:52 remaining.
Reid backed down Florida State to push the Wake Forest lead back to four, 67-63.
Florida State would tie the contest with less than a minute remaining in regulation before Reid put home a powerful slam to put Wake Forest back in front, 69-67, with 24 seconds left.
The Deacs ultimately fell by a final of 72-70.

Stats of the Game

Senior Cameron Hildreth recorded his eighth 20-plus scoring performance in ACC play, with his 23 points against the Seminoles marking his fourth-consecutive 20-plus point game.
The Deacs outscored the Seminoles 40-32 in the paint on Wednesday.

Coach's Comments
"That was a really bad loss. It's probably the worst loss that I've had here. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. We gave up 51 points in the second half. We had no urgency to defend. With that being said, we were up 63-54 at the last media timeout within four minutes of the game, and they scored 18 points in four minutes. They scored on 12 of their last 15 possessions, including their last seven possessions. We gave up transition threes. We didn't even get back after missing a free throw. They threw the ball over our head and made a three. They got a dunk on an out of bounds play. We fouled the jump shooter twice. It was just error after error. We had bad shots and turnovers on our end. Even with that being said, Efton [Reid] dunks the ball and gets fouled, but they didn't call it. We were still up two and we called timeout. The last thing that we said was to not let the three open. We were fine with the two because it doesn't beat us, it just ties us. We ran a very simple Z action where we roll and replace. Our four tagged the roller, which wasn't his responsibility. He's responsible for the shooter. We gave up a wide-open three. We still had a lot of time, even with no timeouts left. We told them to attack the basket and go, and they just shot up a 45-foot three-pointer with 13 seconds left. That's on me. After all that, we still had the opportunity because they fouled us on the three-point shot, and we just missed the free throws." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest will once again leave the state of North Carolina, traveling to Dallas on Saturday to face SMU in the first meeting between the two programs in 22 years.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. EST and the matchup will be televised nationally on the ACC Network.

Wake Forest Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Omaha Biliew

Juke Harris

Cameron Hildreth

Efton Reid III

Hunter Sallis

Tre'Von Spillers

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