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Wake Forest wins 76 Classic against Baylor
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Published: December 1, 2008
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Wake Forest continued its tradition of fast starts by capping a sweep of the 76 Classic on Sunday.
The No. 19 Deacons raised their record to 6-0 for the fourth time this decade with an 87-74 victory over Baylor late Sunday at the Anaheim Convention Center.
"It was a great win," coach Dino Gaudio said.
"I thought we played incredibly hard. I thought we beat a very talented, very well-coached team."
L.D. Williams led a balanced Wake Forest attack with 15 points, while Jeff Teague and James Johnson had 14, Al-Farouq Aminu20had 13 and James Johnson and Chas McFarland added 11.
Johnson, Aminu and Williams also had double-doubles, Johnson with 14 rebounds, Aminu with 12 and Williams with 10. It was Aminu's third double-double in six career games.
The Deacons have their first 6-0 start since the 2003-04 team won its first 11 games before reaching the NCAA Sweet 16.
The Deacons went on an 18-1 run that began early in the second half to take a 49-37 lead, and Baylor never caught up, although the Bears crawled back to within four points with 3:38 remaining.
Aminu had two follow shots during the run, and the Deacons dominated the inside and never had much trouble getting to the rim.
Wake Forest, which upset coach Dino Gaudio by getting outrebounded by 17 in a semifinal victory over UTEP on Friday, had a 62-38 advantage on the boards against Baylor.
The Deacons had 21 second-chance points.
Teague, the tournament's leading scorer with 53 points in the first two games, was the runnerup to Arizona State's James Harden in voting for the tournament most valuable player.
Wake Forest is likely to rise in the polls with its three victories in four days, and Baylor could find itself ranked despite the final game loss to the Deacons after beating No. 14 Arizona State in the semifinals.
It was the first meeting between the two schools.
Neither team did much to distinguish itself in the first half – Baylor made only 9 of its 32 field goals, 28.1 percent, but committed only four turnovers.
The Deacons were 12 of 34 in the first half, 35 percent, but their 10 turnovers worked to offset a 31-21 rebounding edge.
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