WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—Jeff Teague watched helplessly from home last year while Air Force handed Wake Forest its most lopsided nonconference loss of the modern era, taking phone calls from people second-guessing his college choice.
Then, he and fellow freshman James Johnson helped their older teammates avenge that embarrassing defeat.
Johnson scored a season-high 22 points and Teague added a season-high six steals during the Demon Deacons’ 78-67 win against Air Force on Sunday, a reversal of last year’s 36-point loss in Colorado Springs.
“People were calling me (during that game to ask), ‘Are you still going to Wake Forest?'” Teague said. “In practice all week, we talked about the loss and how hard (late coach Skip) Prosser took it. We were like, ‘We don’t want to feel that feeling ever again.’ And I don’t want to feel it, because I’ve never felt it, but they were telling me how bad it felt.”
L.D. Williams had 16 points, while Harvey Hale added 15 and keyed the critical stretch for Wake Forest by scoring five points during the 10-0 second-half run that broke the game open. It helped the Demon Deacons (9-3) win their fourth straight, push their ACC-best home-court winning streak to 12 and make up for that ugly 94-58 result last November.
“That was what we were using for motivation for this game—the worst loss we’ve had” since 1931, Hale said. “We were like, ‘We’ve got to come out and play, we’ve got to bring some intensity, some energy, to beat these guys.'”
Tim Anderson had a career-high 30 points—the most Wake Forest has allowed a player this season—for the Falcons (8-5). They shot 50 percent and knocked down 56 percent of their 3-pointers but couldn’t overcome 19 turnovers and a 35-29 rebounding disadvantage.
“We’ve got to do three things better,” coach Jeff Reynolds said. “We’ve got to rebound the ball better. We’ve got to take care of the basketball better, and continue to shoot the ball like we did tonight.”
Wake Forest took the lead for good late in the first half on a Johnson free throw, then took control in the second. The Demon Deacons’ largest lead came at 60-48 on Hale’s 3-pointer with 10 1/2 minutes remaining, a big shot that followed his baseline jumper and capped their run of 10 straight points.
“I hear the coaches and the players on the sideline (saying), ‘Quit passing, quit head-faking,'” Hale said. “I just think, ‘Shoot, man.'”
Andrew Henke added 10 points for Air Force, which had its three-game winning streak snapped.
Early on, this one shaped up as a game dominated by big spurts and short tempers, with three technical fouls called in the opening 16 minutes.
Wake Forest’s Chas McFarland was ejected after his second technical came with 5:01 before halftime, and less than a minute later Henke also received a T for what official Mike Stuart said was baiting and taunting.
“That’s unacceptable. In my opinion, the officials gave (McFarland) what he deserved, and hopefully he learns a lesson from it,” Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said.
Air Force used an early 19-3 run to take a 19-8 lead, made eight of its first nine shots and knocked down five of their first seven attempts from 3-point range. But Wake Forest reeled off 13 straight points midway through the half to erase its 11-point deficit—with Teague registering four steals during that defense-dominated stretch.
“We turned up the pressure, started pressing a little bit and got a lot of turnovers,” said Teague, who finished with 11 points. “They just happened to land in my hand.”
The game was a homecoming of sorts for Reynolds, a North Carolina-Greensboro graduate who has coached in the Tar Heel State.
