Associated Press
WINSTON-SALEM ó Harvey Hale had heard plenty about those 3-point shots that didn’t want to fall. His girlfriend constantly asked when he was going to start making them. His father even called before Sunday’s game against Wright State to remind the Wake Forest senior to put more arc on his shot.
Maybe now they’ll give him a little space.
Hale had a season-high 17 points and hit five 3s to help the 11th-ranked Demon Deacons remain unbeaten with a 66-53 victory over the Raiders.
L.D. Williams added 11 points for the Demon Deacons (9-0), who are off to their best start since winning the first 11 games of 2003-04. While Wake Forest shot 52 percent and was never in any real danger of being the victim of an upset, the Demon Deacons were sloppy with the ball (22 turnovers) coming out of a weeklong break for exams.
Hale’s shooting kept it from being an upset-inducing set of miscues against the pesky Raiders (2-7).
“I thought Harvey Hale stepped up and played a big-time game for us when we needed him to,” Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. “He deserves a lot of credit for that win. He stepped up and just shot the ball really well and guarded the ball well.”
Hale hit his first five shots ó all from behind the arc ó and had two steals in 18 minutes. He came into this game averaging 6.8 points and shooting 7-for-23 (30 percent) from 3-point range, but cracked double figures in scoring for the first time this season.
He said his father’s pregame phone call helped him focus even more during warmups.
“My dad told me, ‘Arc the ball up,’ something I haven’t really been doing,” Hale said. “I’ve been hitting the front end (of the rim) a lot. … I thought about that when I was shooting around before the game. When I got in the game, it just came effortless.”