Wednesday night in Wake’s 66-57 victory over the Tar Heels, O’Kelley got those 18 points — but in a highly unorthodox manner.

He did it after missing all eight of his shots in the first half. He did it even after missing his first three attempts of the second.

He did it after staring at the wall inside the Wake locker room during halftime.

But regardless of how he scored those 18, he simply did it when the Demon Deacons needed him the most — in the last 14 minutes of the contest.

O’Kelley is lucky. He is the bonafide leader of Dave Odom’s team. He is the star of Odom’s team. So when he has a disasterous half, he isn’t benched. He is encouraged.

“Yeah, we encouraged him,” said Broderick Hicks, who played a big role off the pine for Wake and O’Kelley. “We needed his points. We figured they would come eventually.”

Odom thought the same thing. At least, he told O’Kelley that at halftime after a glum Deacon shooting performance had left his team down 28-21.

“I was really worried about him at halftime,” Odom said. “We go off into groups and when his group came by, Robert wasn’t with it. He was in the locker room literally staring at the wall.”

How did Odom react to the miserable first-half shooting by his star?

“I told him to keep shooting,” Odom said. “It will come.”

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It didn’t come right away for O’Kelley after the second half began. Or for his teammates, who had bricked it to the tune of 30 percent in the first 20 minutes. There were actually some scattered boos when O’Kelley missed his 11th straight.

“Since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a start like that,” said O’Kelley afterward, obviously still in amazement.

“He had good looks. It was the most amazing streak I’ve seen him have,” agreed Odom.

Then, the 6-1 guard from Memphis hit a free throw with 14 minutes left and heard the 14,377 in attendance let out the loudest cheer of the night, albeit a sarcastic one.

“You could hear a collective sigh of relief in Joel Coliseum,” Odom said.

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North Carolina played like it always does after a super performance. It had shot 71 percent in its last game against N.C. State but shot only 37 last night. But still, with O’Kelley doing more harm than good, the Heels built a 35-25 lead with 13:22 remaining.

Three minutes later, it was 39-38 after a three-point play by O’Kelley. Even that bucket had the fans holding their breath. He crashed into Jason Capel, a sure charge. But referee Mike Wood gave O’Kelley the benefit of the doubt and called a block.

“What got me going?” wondered O’Kelley. “I don’t know. I got mad.”

Josh Howard’s three-pointer gave Wake the lead for good at 41-40 and that’s when O’Kelley took over.

Kris Lang missed a layup and he buried a three. Joseph Forte clanged two free throws off the rim and O’Kelley drilled a jumper for a 46-40 lead.

“O’Kelley got going and his team followed him,” said Forte, who never did get going, finishing 1-of-10 from the field.

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Meanwhile, Brendan Haywood, UNC’s 7-foot enigma, was in his bi-weekly funk. He didn’t even shoot in the first half and grabbed a whopping — for him — one rebound.

His dunk pulled UNC within 48-44 but there was O’Kelley again, hitting another three-pointer. A steal turned into a fast break layup.

Suddenly, Wake was up 53-44. It had finished a 28-9 run and O’Kelley had scored exactly half.

“You know O’Kelley isn’t going to miss forever,” shrugged Heels coach Bill Guthridge.

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O’Kelley scored just four more points over the last six minutes but the damage had been done.

He was back in the good graces of the fans, who poured onto the court in front of an ESPN audience.

“It was certainly a great ending on a night to remember,” Odom said. “He had the courage to keep shooting.”

O’Kelley thanked his teammates and then thanked his No. 1 fan.

“Coach Odom had confidence in me,” he smiled. “He kept me in the game.”

O’Kelley wasn’t hearing the boos anymore.

“Ishook hands with (UNC’s players),” he said, “but I had to jump into the crowd.”

Acrowd that gave O’Kelley a very unorthodox 40 minutes of emotion.

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