Wake Forest 'locked in' during win streak as North Carolina looms

Field Level Media|published: Mon 20th January, 23:32 2025

Jan 11, 2025; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Wake Forest Demon Deacons guard Hunter Sallis (23) passes the basketball as Miami Hurricanes guard Austin Swartz (23) defends during the second half at Watsco Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Wake Forest will aim to extend its five-game winning streak Tuesday night when it hosts Big Four and Atlantic Coast Conference rival North Carolina in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The Demon Deacons (14-4, 6-1) are piecing together a seemingly strong NCAA Tournament resume with a hot start in conference play. It's shaping up to be another down year for the ACC according to various bracketologists -- last season marked the third consecutive year that the league, while having at least one team make the Final Four, had just a total of five teams in the tournament field.

Simply put, to ensure that the ACC doesn't fall below five tourney bids this year, it needs its good teams to play well down the stretch.

Wake Forest -- who is joined by UNC, Duke and NC State in the celebrated Big Four -- looks like one of those strong teams, while North Carolina (12-7, 5-2) faces questions with an uneven resume after losing at home on Saturday thanks to a last-second shot from Stanford's Jaylen Blakes.

For the Deacons, a win over the Tar Heels would go down as a Quad 2 victory, providing a boost to their postseason resume considering Wake is a combined 1-4 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games.

Wake is coming off a 72-63 win Saturday at Virginia Tech in which Hunter Sallis had 24 points and seven rebounds while Cameron Hildreth added 21 points. Sallis, an All-ACC selection last season, leads the conference in minutes played per game (35.9) and is second in scoring (19.5).

"Right now, we have a very locked-in and focused basketball team," Wake coach Steve Forbes said. "Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth, they're just two very exceptional players... Cam's like the fullback in the wishbone. You just hand it to him and he runs over people.

North Carolina, meanwhile, saw its four-game win streak snapped in Saturday's 72-71 loss to Stanford. Aside from Blakes' heroics, what hurt the Tar Heels was their poor 3-point shooting, making just 27.8 percent of their shots from deep. UNC is now 1-4 when shooting below 28 percent from behind the arc this season.

The result marked the first time UNC lost at home while leading at halftime since a Feb. 8, 2020, loss to Duke.

"Basketball is no different than life. There are going to be rainy days and sunny days, so we didn't make enough plays to win the game," UNC coach Hubert Davis said. "We just made too many little mistakes."

Leading the Tar Heels in the loss was RJ Davis, who had 19 points. It was the first time in nine games that Ian Jackson -- who averages 15.2 points per game -- didn't score in double figures.

--Field Level Media