Maybe Wake Forest’s brains are still tuned in to chemistry or math or history. The Deacons almost let UNC Greensboro make a little history Wednesday night, narrowly avoiding an upset with a 71-62 win. It wasn’t the kind of night the 25th-ranked team in the nation had planned, and it’s been a long week. Since beating Temple on Dec. 4, Wake is a shaky 1-1.

“We continue to be bogged down by bad decisions at inopportune times,”Odom said. “Closing games out is very important and something we’re not doing right now.”

TheDemon Deacons (6-1) didn’t connect on a field goal in the final 3:40 and hit just 7-of-14 free throws in the last two minutes against a SouthernConference rival they blew out by 37 points a year ago.

“While we’re very pleased to win the basketball game we’re certainly not satisfied with the way we played,”Odom said. “I think Greensboro had more than a little to do with that. They got behind a couple of times, I think to a breaking point, and they refused to let it go any further.”

Wake didn’t press the issue. The Demon Deacons stormed to a 9-2 lead against the smaller Spartans (5-2) but stood by as 6-foot-8 Demetrius Cherry kept his team close with a strong inside game. His layup tied the game at 19-all before Darius Songaila keyed a 10-2 run for a 29-21 halftime edge.

“They came out really strong and felt like they had something to prove, and we didn’t step up to the challenge,”Wake center Rafael Vidaurreta said. “You always think somebody’s going to step up and at some point there was nobody to give us a lift.”

Wake’s woes would not be solved at halftime. The Deacons took leads of 10 points nine different times in the first half of the last 20 minutes, and each time the Spartans answered. When quick point guard Courtney Eldridge drove for a layup and three-point play, UNCG trailed 52-49.

That’s when it really hit home.

“It really doesn’t matter what you’re ranked or who you are if you don’t play to your best ability,”Wake center Josh Shoemaker said. “You’re going to get beat. It can happen to you any time.”

Songaila answered with a driving layup before Craig Dawson ended a 5-0 spurt with a baseline jumper. He hit two more free throws minutes later to bump the lead back to double digits, which helped Wake weather the missed free throws and turnovers during the Spartans’ comeback attempt.

A win, yes. A happy team? No.

“If I knew what it was I think I’d tell my team and we’d get it straight,”Shoemaker said. “Everybody’s been searching for it.”

All Odom knows is the elusive “it” can’t be found in the books his players were hitting all last week. His team must grab back what it had two weeks ago, especially with the ACCseason closing fast.

“Our team right now has taken a step backwards from where we were two weeks ago againstTemple,”Odom said. “We’ve got to go back and find that magic and build on that. We’d better find it quick.”

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