WINSTON-SALEM — Wake Forest started strong and finished just as strong to dominate NC State on Saturday.
Wake Forest shot a blistering 58.3 percent in the second half to pull away for an easy 77-59 win in front of 9,633 at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Senior guard Hunter Sallis led the way with 20 points, but he got help from freshman wing Jayden “Juke” Harris and senior power forward Tre’Von Spillers. Harris came off the bench for 17 points in 28 minutes, and Spillers had 12 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The Wolfpack were not ready for the Demon Deacons’ opening punch, which resulted in a 19-4 leads with 13:21 left.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts has lamented during NC State’s 8-6 start (1-2 in the ACC) that he isn’t sure what he’ll get from game-to-game from certain core players. He is also concerned the team is losing in a variety of different ways. For instance, in the loss against Virginia on Tuesday, the team had a great first half. A few days later, that wasn’t the case.
Keatts said they'll figure it out and the team needs to play a full 40-minute game.
“I think our most frustrating thing about our group right now is that we have put ourselves in so many different deficits throughout the entire year,” Keatts said. “I don’t want to be known as the comeback team. We got to figure out how to get off to good starts.”
NC State clawed its way back in to gain some momentum at halftime, trailing 38-32. The Wolfpack had cut it to two points, which seemed remarkable considering the early deficit.
The second half started much like the game, only this time Wake Forest didn’t have any offensive lulls.
Sallis was getting to his spots and had nine of the first 19 points in the second half. Wake Forest went on a 19-7 run, culminating in Keatts’ getting a technical foul when he thought WFU center Efton Reid wasn’t called for a foul on certain plays.
“I disagreed with it, and I got the technical foul,” Keatts said. “That's how it works in basketball. If you don't like it, you argue it, and you're probably going to get a technical, and I got one.”
The Demon Deacons surged to a 57-43 lead with 12:11 remaining. NC State trailed by as many as 22 points in the second half, and never got closer than 12 points after the WFU run.
“In the second half, we kind of let it get away from us, so we can't do that in the future,” NCSU senior forward Dontrez Styles said. “I would say we just got to be tougher. We just got to focus better.
“I feel like we have our little spurts where we're locked in. We're focused on the game plan. At some points of the game, we're not as focused. We let the game get away from us like we did tonight. We can't do that.”
Harris gave Wake Forest a boost in the first half with 14 of his 17 points. The Salisbury, N.C., native scored in a variety of ways and used his 6-foot-7 size to advantage in the paint. The game was the fourth time he’s reached double figures this season.
Wake Forest also proved to be comfortable playing four perimeter players and Spillers, who should get an extra year of eligibility from his stint in junior college. Reid proved ineffective in 20 foul-plagued minutes, forcing Wake Forest to go with the small ball approach.
NC State welcomed back senior center Ben Middlebrooks from illness — he had missed the Virginia loss — and started him with fellow 6-10 senior post player Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. The height advantage didn’t pay off with the duo combining for 13 points, four rebounds and a block.
The lineup change led to Styles to come off the bench for 25 minutes, getting 11 points and 10 boards for his first double-double of the season. The rest of the team had 15 rebounds with NCSU getting out-rebounded 31-25.
“It's been a tough week for sure,” said Styles on losing to both Virginia and Wake Forest. “We just got to get back in the lab and go compete in practice. It starts in practice, and we got to have it carry over to the game, and we will do that. We’ll be better.”
Keatts had hoped for a healthy Mike James, who had a knee scope at the start of the season. James has been able to return to the court recently, but the Wolfpack could ultimately redshirt him this season and hope for a future NCAA waiver.
NC State hosts Notre Dame on Wednesday and North Carolina on Saturday.
“Mike James, we were able to throw him in a couple drills,” Keatts said. “He's had some really bad luck. The next day he was sick, came down with probably 102 temperature. We've had to kind of back off his recovery just to make sure he's OK.”
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