Despite not receiving any votes in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll, Wake Forest is riding high, having won 10 of its past 11 games. The Demon Deacons will aim to add another tally to their win column Tuesday when they travel to Raleigh, N.C., to take on rival North Carolina State.
Wake Forest (12-4, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) is coming off an impressive 66-47 home victory over Virginia. The victory marked the first time Wake held an opponent under 50 points during Steve Forbes’ four seasons on the job.
The Deacs are off to their best start in conference play since the 2004-05 season.
“That was a great win for our program. Virginia is the model program in our league with culture, coaching and winning tradition,” Forbes said. “Our defensive effort was outstanding the whole game.
“For Hunter (Sallis) and Cameron (Hildreth) to chase their players off screens all game long, I don’t think people realize how hard that is and the elite condition they have to be in to do that.”
Sallis played both ways at a high level Saturday, finishing with a game-leading 21 points and nine rebounds. Hildreth had seven points, four boards and two assists. Sallis leads the team with 18 points per game this season, while Kevin Miller averages 17.6 points and 4.3 assists.
Wake Forest is fourth in the ACC in scoring this season, averaging 80.9 points per game.
NC State (12-4, 4-1) is coming off a win, too, albeit a bit less impressive. The Wolfpack beat last-place Louisville 89-83 on the road Saturday behind a season-high 27 points from DJ Horne.
Louisville tied the game with about 10 minutes to play, then NC State broke off a 25-11 run to go ahead by 14 points with less than three minutes left. Horne had eight points, an assist and a rebound during that crucial stretch for the Wolfpack.
After Louisville trimmed the deficit to three with 52 seconds left, Horne scored five points in the final 31 seconds to ice the game.
“DJ Horne was tremendous coming off the bench and did a great job, so I’m excited about it. We finished down the stretch,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said.
Horne started in NC State’s previous 15 games, but came off the bench Saturday because, Keatts said, he was late to a film session earlier in the week. Horne leads the Wolfpack with 14.7 points per game this season.
NC State received eight votes in this week’s AP poll.
Wolfpack teams coached by Keatts are 9-3 against Wake Forest and 5-1 at home in PNC Arena. Tuesday will be the 255th meeting between NC State and the Demon Deacons.
–Field Level Media