Wake Forest goes cold in loss at N.C. State
RALEIGH – Wake Forest faded in the second half of its ACC opener at N.C. State and lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
The Deacons lost 70-57 to the Wolfpack on Wednesday afternoon at Lenovo Center.
Wake Forest (9-5, 0-1 ACC) was within four points at halftime. But the Deacons shot under 30% in the second half as the Wolfpack (10-4, 1-0) pulled away.
Junior forward Omaha Biliew led Wake Forest with a career-high 18 points. His 10 rebounds not only gave him his first career double-double; it doubled his previous career high of five rebounds.
The Deacons’ four-point deficit at halftime quickly hit double digits when the Wolfpack scored the first seven points. In the first 7½ minutes of the second half, N.C. State had a couple of 7-0 runs and pushed the lead to 52-36.
Wake Forest never got within single digits of the lead for the rest of the game.
At the last media timeout of the game, Wake Forest was 1-for-13 from 3-point range in the second half; 5-for-27 for the game.
That put Wake’s combined 3-point clip at 14-for-72 (19.4%) for the past three games.
N.C. State stretched its lead to 10 with 2:20 left in the first half. Omaha Biliew scored the game’s next six points and the Deacons only went to halftime trailing 36-32.
It was a sloppy first half for both teams.
Each of them went to halftime having committed 11 turnovers. Wake Forest shot 40% in the first half and N.C. State was at 42.9%; it was just a matter of actually getting shot attempts.
The Wolfpack outrebounded Wake Forest 19-13 in the first half. The Deacons led second-chance points 4-3, though.
