Calmese’s Late Three Pushes Deacs to ACC Home-Opening Win Against Hokies

Saturday, January 3

Winston-Salem, N.C.

12 p.m.

Wake Forest University

10-5,1-1ACC

Virginia Tech

12-3,1-1ACC

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

Photo by: Bryce Mitchell / Wake Forest Athletics

Calmese’s Late Three Pushes Deacs to ACC Home-Opening Win Against Hokies

1/3/2026 3:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Senior guard Nate Calmese led the Deacs with a season-best 25 points, including a go-ahead three-pointer with 6.5 seconds remaining.

By: Stephen Czarda, Keion Robinson and KJ Smith

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Behind a clutch performance from senior guard Nate Calmese, which included the go-ahead three-pointer with 6.5 seconds left, the Wake Forest men's basketball team (10-5, 1-1 ACC) defeated Virginia Tech (12-3, 1-1 ACC) in its ACC home opener on Saturday afternoon, 81-78.

The Gilbert, Ariz., native finished the game with a season-high 25 points while shooting 9-of-18 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range. Calmese also led the Demon Deacons with seven assists to go along with three rebounds and a steal.

Sophomore guard Juke Harris recorded 15 points, five rebounds, an assist and a steal. Meanwhile, senior forward Tre'Von Spillers totaled 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting, as well as five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.

Junior forward Cooper Schwieger tallied a season-high eight points while connecting on both of his three-point attempts. The Overland Park, Kan., native also added five rebounds, including a team-high three offensive rebounds, and an assist against the Hokies. Additionally, following Saturday's game, Schwieger is now just one point away from reaching 1,000 points for his career.

Junior Myles Colvin contributed seven points and a team-high eight rebounds, along with three steals.

Overall, Wake Forest secured 13 offensive rebounds, resulting in 19 second-chance points. In addition, the Deacs connected on 16 of their 18 free throw attempts for an 87.5 percent clip.

Defensively, the Demon Deacons forced Virginia Tech into a season-high 19 turnovers, including 14 in the first half, leading to 19 points off turnovers and 15 fastbreak points.

How It Happened

Wake Forest opened the game on a 12-2 run.
- Junior forward Omaha Biliew opened the scoring with a layup in transition as the Deacs turned defense into offense following a steal by junior guard Myles Colvin.
- Senior guard Nate Calmese found senior forward Tre'Von Spillers on an alley-oop to put the Demon Deacons up by three.
- Sophomore guard Juke Harris converted an and-one layup on the next possession to make it 8-2.
- Spillers added a ferocious dunk following a steal to give Wake Forest an eight-point lead.
- The Demon Deacons turned a steal into a breakaway dunk on the next trip down the court, as Spillers found Colvin in transition, forcing a Virginia Tech timeout.
Following the timeout, Calmese hit a floater in the lane as the Deacs extended their lead back to 10 points.
After the Hokies tied the game with a 10-0 run, Colvin drained the Demon Deacons' first three-pointer of the game to regain the lead.
- Senior guard Mekhi Mason added Wake Forest's first bench points of the game with a driving layup to make it 19-14.
Following a media timeout, Biliew extended the Deacs' run to 7-0 with a slam off the find from sophomore guard Sebastian Akins.
Junior forward Cooper Schwieger sank a pair of free throws for his first points of the contest at the 7:57 mark in the first half.
Calmese added another floater to make it 25-16 at the 5:36 mark.
After a short spurt by Virginia Tech, Harris connected on a pair from the line to make it a six-point game.
- Calmese drilled a three-pointer on the following trip down the court to give Wake Forest a 30-23 advantage.
Spillers slammed home a lob from Calmese to make it a six-point game.
- Calmese added a floater in the lane on the next possession.
After Virginia Tech cut the lead down to two points, Harris finished at the rim with a tough layup to put the Deacs back up by four.
The Demon Deacons entered halftime leading the Hokies, 36-32.
- Calmese led the Deacs with nine points to go along with four assists in the first half.
Wake Forest opened the second half with a three-pointer by Schwieger.
- Calmese moved into double digits with another floater in the paint to make it a seven-point game.
- The Gilbert, Ariz., native added another driving floater to make it 43-36.
After a short run by the Hokies, Calmese banked it off the glass as the Demon Deacons went back up by four points.
Calmese hit his second three-pointer of the game to give him a season-high 18 points and make it a five-point game.
- Harris converted both of his free throw attempts to put the Demon Deacons up by seven with 13:37 left to play.
Schwieger buried another three-pointer at the 12:23 mark to extend the lead to six points.
- Mason added a three of his own moments later to make it 56-50.
- Akins hit a pull up jumper on the following possession to put the Deacs up by eight.
Virginia Tech took the lead with a 12-0 run.
Harris stopped the run with a turnaround jumper to cut the deficit down to two.
- Colvin tied the game at 62-62 with a transition slam on the next possession.
- After the Hokies reclaimed the lead, Harris converted a tough and-one to even the score once again with 6:10 left in the game.
The Demon Deacons tied the game once again as Calmese connected on a pair from the line.
- Spillers gave the Deacs a 69-67 lead with a transition slam off the assist by Calmese with 4:04 remaining.
Spillers gave Wake Forest a two-point lead with a hook shot.
- The Charleston, S.C., native made it 73-71 moments later with another dunk.
Spillers recorded a putback tip shot before converting the ensuing free throw attempt to make it 76-74 with 1:11 left to play.
Calmese hit a stepback three-pointer with 6.5 seconds left to give Wake Forest a 79-76 lead.
Calmese sank two more from the charity stripe with 3.1 seconds as the Deacs reclaimed a three-point lead.
Wake Forest secured the 81-78 victory over the Hokies.

Stat of the Game

The Deacs are averaging 9.5 steals per game, the most in the conference. Wake Forest recorded 10 steals against the Hokies.

Rank	ACC School	Steals Per Game
1.	Wake Forest	9.5
2.	Florida State	9.4
3.	SMU	8.7
4.	Miami	8.6
5.	Stanford	8.5

Additionally, the Demon Deacons have forced opponents into 15.9 turnovers per game, the second-most in the ACC.
- Wake Forest forced Virginia Tech into 19 turnovers on Saturday including 14 in the first half. Entering the contest, the Hokies' season-high was 14 turnovers (vs. Virginia on Dec. 31, 2025).

Rank	ACC School	Total Turnovers Forced
1.	Wake Forest	238
2.	Florida State	236
3.	Stanford	222
4.	Miami	202
5.	Syracuse	200

Key Moment

Senior guard Nate Calmese buried a stepback three-pointer with 6.5 seconds remaining to give the Demon Deacons a 79-76 lead.
- The Gilbert, Ariz., native added a pair of free throws moments later to help secure the 81-78 win.

Coach's Comments
"Mike [Young] has a really good team. I know that was a hard loss for them. They played really hard and really tough. They're coming off a three-overtime game against Virginia. They're a reflection of him. They're physical, they're tough, and they play together. They're good. I thought we did a really good job of mixing up our ball screen coverages on them. I thought we confused them early. We used three different looks. They got us a few times. They figured out a couple things, and then we changed something else. That's a credit to our team, but to turn them over 19 times tells me that we had them off balance for a lot of the game, and that's hard to do on a Mike Young-coached team.

"I thought we should have been up more at half, and then in the second half – granted they got on a little run. We came out in the second half, and with 7:37 left in the game I think we scored on 11 of our next 13 possessions to end the game. We also stopped them on five out of their last six possessions. We had nine kills for the game. A big difference between our game today and against NC State is that we were 15-of-18 at the rim. Those are winning numbers. We had a lot of offensive rebounds. I was really disappointed in the way we rebounded the ball offensively against NC State. We had 13 today.

"Nate [Calmese] made a big shot, but more important than that, he was getting downhill at will. That was the whole game plan coming in, and I had to remind him of that early in the first half. I told him to stop going east and west, get your shoulders downhill, get to your floater, get to the inside where you could kick out and throw the flip ups. I thought he played outstandingly. That was a great team win. I just thought our guys were resilient. They played hard. They stayed together. We had great execution coming out of timeouts when we were drawing up things on plays on defense. For the most part, I thought they were really in tune on what we were trying to do during the timeouts." - head coach Steve Forbes

Up Next
Wake Forest will remain at home on Wednesday evening, hosting Miami at the Joel. Tip-off between the Demon Deacons and Hurricanes is scheduled for 7 p.m. and airs nationally on ESPNU.