By Bret Strelow
bstrelow@salisburypost.com
WINSTON-SALEM ó Wake Forest caught its second wind Sunday in a 93-76 home win against Boston College.
Jeff Teague scored 21 of his 27 points in the first half and freshman Al-Farouq Aminu added a career-high 26 to lead the seventh-ranked Demon Deacons, who dropped three of their first four games after ascending to No. 1 in the national polls.
“It’s a marathon,” Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. “You know what? We’re running a pretty good race so far.”
One of Gaudio’s assistant coaches was quick to voice his displeasure as the Demon Deacons (18-3, 5-3 ACC) congregated at halftime.
Boston College, thanks to a 21-11 advantage in rebounds and a 16-0 margin in second-chance points, led 47-46 at the break.
Wake assistant Mike Muse, who is in charge of rebounding, spoke up and expressed concern over the discrepancy. Aminu, James Johnson and reserve center Tony Woods helped the Deacs win the second-half rebounding battle 20-10.
“Coach Muse came in and chewed us out, and we just knew that we had to focus on that in order to win the game,” Aminu said.
Wake also limited Joe Trapani’s open looks and benefited from Tyrese Rice’s four-minute absence.
Gaudio switched some defensive assignments and put L.D. Williams on Trapani, who scored only four of his team-high 19 points in the second half. Rice (18 points) was inadvertently kicked in the leg as he made an acrobatic layup to trim Boston College’s deficit to 64-61, and he left the game.
Wake, which responded with a 21-7 run, scored seven consecutive points after Rice went to the bench. He was walking toward the locker room as Aminu drilled a 3-pointer that pushed the Deacs ahead by 10.
Aminu missed his only field-goal attempt in the first half and went 7-for-7 from the floor in the final 20 minutes.
“If he just runs, so many of his shots are just right at the cup,” Gaudio said.
Rice returned with his team trailing 73-65, and Woods played a significant role in Wake’s game-changing run.
He had two tip-ins and one dunk during a six-minute stretch in which the Eagles (18-7, 6-4) were outscored 17-6. An offensive rebound by Woods prolonged the possession that ended with Aminu’s third 3-pointer in 22 attempts this season.
Gaudio smiled and jokingly pumped two fists while addressing the rare occurrence.
“I think I’m a better shooter than I’m showing,” Aminu said. “Coach still lets me shoot them. He hasn’t taken them away from me.”
Woods had played at least 10 minutes in only one of Wake’s previous six games, and he didn’t enter the lineup in a two-point win over Duke on Jan. 28.
He finished with eight points and three rebounds in 12 minutes against Boston College.
“That’s practice every day, but sometimes it doesn’t necessarily convert over to the game, especially when I have a small window for error,” Woods said. “It converted over from practice to this game.”
TOP 25
NEW YORK ó Jerry Smith scored a season-high 21 points and No. 5 Louisville came up with another outstanding defensive effort in a 60-47 victory over St. John’s on Sunday.
No. 23 Illinois 66, No. 12 Purdue 48
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ó Mike Davis scored 14 points and pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds to lead the Illini into a tie for second in the Big Ten.
No. 22 Washington 75, Stanford 68
STANFORD, Calif. ó Quincy Pondexter scored 20 points, including a pair of key free throws down the stretch to help the Huskies end a 15-game losing streak at Stanford.
CHARLOTTE WINS
CHARLOTTEó DiJuan Harris, Charlotte’s undersized ó and only ó point guard, had 13 points, a career-high 12 assists and just one turnover in Charlotte’s 79-66 win on Sunday that snapped Dayton’s seven-game winning streak.
Lamont Mack also added 20 points for the 49ers.
Behind two spectacular alley-oop dunks by Charlie Coley on feeds from Harris, Charlotte (8-14, 2-6) rallied from a six-point deficit early in the second half.