Wake Forest Men’s Basketball Falls at No. 5 Duke

Saturday, January 24

Durham, N.C.

12 p.m

Wake Forest University

11-9,2-5ACC

Duke

18-1,7-0ACC

Wake Forest

Duke

1/24/2026 2:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Demon Deacons will remain on the road for a Tuesday evening showdown at Pitt.

By: Stephen Czarda, Keion Robinson and KJ Smith

DURHAM, N.C. – The Wake Forest men's basketball team (11-9, 2-5 ACC) dropped a Big Four showdown with No. 5 Duke (18-1, 7-0 ACC) by a final of 90-69 on Saturday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Sophomore guard Juke Harris recorded his ninth 20-point scoring game of the season as he led the Demon Deacons with 23 points on 6-of-12 shooting while hitting 5-of-9 shots from three-point range. The Salisbury, N.C., native added two rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block against the Blue Devils.

With his performance, Harris has now scored double-digits in all 20 games this season, marking the fourth-longest streak of consecutive games reaching a double-digit scoring total in the Steve Forbes era.

Junior forward Cooper Schwieger reached double figures for the first time this season as the Overland Park, Kan., native finished Saturday's game with 12 points on an efficient 5-of-7 shooting. Schwieger also totaled two rebounds, a block and a steal.

Junior forward Omaha Biliew tallied 11 points, two rebounds and an assist over the course of 22 minutes off the bench. Meanwhile, senior forward Tre'Von Spillers ended the game with 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and a steal while also tying his career-high with a pair of three-pointers.

How It Happened

Following a steal by junior guard Myles Colvin, the Demon Deacons scored the first points of the game with a hook shot by junior forward Cooper Schwieger.
- Colvin would assist senior forward Tre'Von Spillers on a three-pointer a couple possessions later.
- The Deacs extended their early lead to four points on the next trip down the court as sophomore guard Juke Harris buried a three of his own.
- Spillers added another basket from beyond the arc to make it 11-5 with 16:57 to play in the first half.
Colvin recorded his first points of the afternoon from the free throw line to make it a six-point game at the 14:03 mark.
Sophomore guard Sebastian Akins found Schwieger under the basket for a wide open dunk to extend the Wake Forest lead to seven.
- Schwieger added a layup moments later to make it 18-11 with 9:26 remaining in the opening half.
Senior guard Nate Calmese grabbed his first points of the game to end a short 6-0 run by the Blue Devils.
After Duke took the lead, the Demon Deacons reclaimed the advantage on a Colvin three-pointer.
- Spillers made it 25-24 on the next possession with a layup at the 5:41 mark.
Wake Forest stopped a 13-0 run with a three-pointer by senior guard Mekhi Mason, cutting the down to nine.
- Junior forward Omaha Biliew knocked down a three of his own on the next possession to make it an eight-point game with 2:19 left in the half.
Wake Forest headed into halftime trailing Duke, 42-31.
- Spillers led the Deacs with eight points in the first half.
Harris opened the second half by hitting a pair of free throws to make it a nine-point game.
After an 8-0 run by the Blue Devils, Schwieger knocked down a three-pointer to move into double digits.
- The Overland Park, Kan., native added a layup moments later to make it 53-38.
Harris hit two from the free throw line coming out of a media timeout to cut the Duke lead down to 13 points.
- The Salisbury, N.C., native drilled a three-pointer at the 14:01 mark to move into double figures.
- He added another effort from long range on the next possessions to cut the deficit down to 12.
- Harris recorded his 10th-straight point for the Deacs with a fast break dunk.
Biliew drained a three-pointer to make it a 10-point game with 12:23 left to play.
Harris added two more from the charity stripe to cut the Duke lead down to 65-53.
The Deacs ended a 10-0 run by the Blue Devils after Biliew converted a pair from the line.
- The Waukee, Iowa, native knocked down a three-pointer at the 4:46 mark.
Harris eclipsed the 20-point mark as he drained a three-pointer to make it 82-61.
Freshman guard Jaylen Cross recorded his first points of the game on a corner three-pointer with 1:30 left to play.
- Spillers moved into double figures a few possessions later with a layup off the assist by Harris.
Harris hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expired off an assist by freshman guard Isaac Carr.
The Demon Deacons fell, 90-69.

Stats of the Game

Sophomore guard Juke Harris led the Demon Deacons with 23 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc. Harris also added two rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block against the Blue Devils.
- The Salisbury, N.C., native is averaging 20.6 points per game this season, which ranks third in the ACC.
  - Additionally, Harris is averaging 14.5 points per game more than he did during his freshman season (6.1 ppg), the second-highest points per game increase in the country this season.
  - Harris' 20.6 points per game this season are currently most in a single season by a Demon Deacon in the Steve Forbes era and most since Tim Duncan's 20.8 points per game during his senior season in 1996-97.
  - Hitting the 20-point mark, Harris has now scored at least 20 points nine times as a Demon Deacon.
    - Hunter Sallis (30), Cameron Hildreth (17), Alondes Williams (14), Tyree Appleby (13), Boopie Miller (9) and Daivien Williamson (9) are the other Demon Deacons to reach 20 points or more nine times in a game in the Steve Forbes era.

Coach's Comments
"Well, last year it was [Duke's] Cooper Flagg. This year, it was Cameron Boozer – he's a great player and a hard guy to guard. They run the entire offense through him. He's kind of really their point guard in a way, through the top and through the post. I'd much rather have him put the ball at the top than at the post. That's kind of how the game started. I thought we had the game more going our way early in the first half, they were shooting threes and not really going to the post as much, and that made me happy, because I knew what could happen.

"So, we were running a good offense. We were moving the ball. We weren't getting hurt on the glass, off the defensive glass, and we weren't turning over. We had a pretty close game and then the game flipped. Why? Because of offensive rebounds. I think they got four in one possession, and turnovers became atomic bombs and hurried shots on our part. That grew into a double-digit lead for them.

"Once they started going inside, we obviously were going to double team the post and just did a really poor job of executing that. Not the bigs – they played fine. It's our guards. This is the second game in a row that I thought our guards got physically whipped, except for Juke [Harris], they have to be pulled in. So, I just got to the point where I had to call it off – that's really hard to do, playing [Boozer] one-on-one in the post. I don't think there's too many people in America that can really guard him down there. You know, he's so patient and he's so strong. When they made the decision to go inside about every possession, they got us a couple times when they emptied out the weak side. It's going to happen. Patrick Ngongba's a good player as well.

"I thought when we ran an offense with our ball movement, we got pretty good shots when we did it. Juke, Omaha [Biliew], Tre'Von [Spillers] and Cooper [Schwieger] all played really well. I thought those guys competed. We need more production out of some others."- head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest will play its final road game of the month of January on Tuesday evening at Pitt.

Tip-off if scheduled for 6 p.m. and the contest will air nationally on the ACC Network.