National Basketball Association
Wake Forest 75, Nicholls State 48
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, November 24, 2014
Where: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Officials:
# Karl Hess, # William Humes, # Andrew Marotta
Attendance:
6045
By SportsDirect Inc.
Wake Forest 75, Nicholls State 48: Mitchell Wilbekin and Cornelius Hudson led a balanced scoring effort with 12 points apiece as the Demon Deacons cruised to an easy home win over the Colonels.
Konstantinos Mitoglou tallied nine points and three blocks off the bench for Wake Forest (3-2), which had six players score at least seven points in the first ever meeting between the schools. No Demon Deacon recorded more than Codi Miller-McIntyre's and Madison Jones’ three assists, but Wake Forest recorded an assist on 16 of its 21 field goals.
Liam Thomas led the way with 13 points before fouling out for Nicholls State (0-3), which missed its first nine 3-point attempts before connecting on two of its last three. The Colonels were outscored 28-10 at the foul line, increasing their deficit at the stripe to 72-25 for the season.
Thomas scored Nicholls State’s first eight points to keep the Colonels in the game for the first five minutes, but a four-minute scoreless drought allowed Wake Forest to open up an 11-point cushion midway through the first half. Nicholls State went through a 4 ½-minute dry spell before the break and Miller-McIntyre scored seven straight during a 13-0 run to stretch the lead to 36-14.
Consecutive triples by Hudson and Wilbekin increased the margin to as much as 28 before the break for the Demon Deacons, who did not surrender a 3-pointer and forced 12 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. After the Colonels opened the second half with a bucket, they could manage only one more field goal over the next nine-plus minutes and Wake Forest saw its lead balloon to 37 midway through the second half.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Wake Forest, which won the battle of the glass 42-21, is outrebounding its opponents by 21.7 per game in its three wins. … The Colonels, whose average margin of defeat is 24.6 points, will play next on Saturday at No. 18 Michigan. … Demon Deacons F Devin Thomas, who recorded a double-double in each of his team’s first four games and entered with an ACC-high 13 in his career, finished with seven points and six rebounds.
Top Game Performances
Nicholls State |
|
Wake Forest |
Liam Thomas 13 |
Scoring |
Cornelius Hudson 12 |
T.J. Carpenter 3 |
Assists |
Madison Jones 3 |
Travis Julien 4 |
Rebounds |
Greg McClinton 6 |
T.J. Carpenter 2 |
Free Throws Made |
Cornelius Hudson 7 |
Richie Lewis 3 |
Steals |
Cornelius Hudson 2 |
Liam Thomas 2 |
Blocks |
Konstantinos Mitoglou 3 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Nicholls State
|
48 |
40.0 |
2-12 |
10-19 |
9 |
20 |
4 |
12 |
18 |
Wake Forest
|
75 |
42.9 |
5-17 |
28-36 |
16 |
40 |
6 |
7 |
17 |