Deacons grind out a 66-53 win

There was little pretty about No. 11 Wake Forest's 66-53 victory over Wright State at Joel Coliseum yesterday other than Harvey Hale's jump shot.

And it was a thing of beauty, both when it left his hand and when it swished through the net.

"I was just ready to shoot," Hale said. "I knocked some 3s down on the break and then I started feeling it."

Hale, a 6-3 senior, drilled his first five 3-point attempts to score 17 points in 18 minutes. His three in a row midway through the first half gave Wake Forest its first cushion at 24-12 and the Deacons rebounded and defended well enough to remain comfortably ahead.

But they also turned the ball over 22 times, which is becoming more and more of a concern for Coach Dino Gaudio as he prepares his team for ACC play.

Wake Forest improved to 9-0. Wright State, whose leading scorer, Vaughn Duggins, missed the game with a broken finger, fell to 2-7.

"The thing that is a little disappointing is our turnovers," Gaudio said. "(Against) Indiana 24. Tonight 22. Two of our last three games we have 46 turnovers.

"And that's what's hurting our offense -- because we're shooting the ball well."

The Deacons shot 52 percent from the floor, despite uncharacteristically shaky offensive performances from their three leading scorers, Jeff Teague, James Johnson and Al-Farouq Aminu.

Teague hit half of his eight field-goal attempts for 10 points, but committed six turnovers. Johnson made four of 10 shots from the floor to score nine points and Aminu made two of three to score four.

Two of the biggest assists for the Deacons came from Harvey Hale, Sr. and Sunshine Covington. Hale said his father and his girlfriend provided the advice and motivation going into the game.

His five 3-pointers tied a career-high. He went 5 of 6 for the game, missing his final attempt in the last minute of play.

If he hadn't taken the final shot, he would have tied Randolph Childress' school record for most 3-pointers without a miss.

"My dad called me today," Hale said. "He told me ‘Arc the ball up.' It was something I haven't really been doing. I'd been hitting the front end a lot.

"He called me and I answered ‘Hello Pop.' (He said) ‘Arc the ball up tonight.' And I was like, ‘All right.' Then he said ‘Bye.' That's all he said."

Covington, a senior at Wake Forest, was a bit more vocal.

"My girlfriend is always giving me a hard time like ‘When are you going to start knocking down some shots?' " Hale said. "I thought about that when I was shooting around before the game. I started really going into my shot hard.

"When I got into the game it just came effortless.

The Raiders, coached by Brad Brownell, a former coach at UNC Wilmington, trailed by seven late in the first half before L.D Williams' 3-pointer with three seconds left gave the Deacons a 35-25 halftime lead.

The deliberate pace bothered the Deacons, who were averaging 85.5 points a game. So Gaudio switched defenses, deploying both full-court and half-court pressure, and the Deacons responded by outscoring the Raiders 19-7 during the first seven minutes of the second half.

Johnson followed his own miss for a 54-32 lead, Wake Forest's biggest of the game.

"We were thinking about it maybe at the four-minute mark of the first half," Gaudio said. "And then I decided ‘You know what, let's try to surprise them a little. Let's just wait until the second half, bide our time a little bit.'

"It gave our guys a little energy. We created a little bit of offense off our defense."

Teague, who missed both of his field-goal attempts in the first half, started the decisive flurry by stealing the ball from N'Gai Evans on the first play of the half and driving ahead of the pack for a layup.

"I guess that's our little secret weapon when we play games like this," Teague said of the defensive tactics. "It gets the games going faster with the press.

"I wish we could have done that more. I think that would have really sparked us up a lot."

Otherwise the Raiders managed to slow the tempo by sending three players back on almost every field-goal attempt. One result of the strategy was the Deacons' 39-19 dominance on the backboards. Aminu led WFU with seven rebounds. Johnson, Teague and Williams had six each.

"We basically sent three back when we shot," Brownell said. "Three guys go back and don't even try to go for the rebound. One guy can try. If it's near the basket two guys can try.

"But we don't have delusions of grandeur that we're going to outrebound Wake Forest. That's not happening."

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

WRIGHT STATE -- Cooperwood 6-8 1-4 13, Thomas 1-3 0-0 2, Gardner 4-11 5-5 14, Evans 3-6 2-2 10, Graham 0-3 0-0 0, Land 1-5 0-0 3, Brown 0-4 0-0 0, Grote 2-5 0-0 5, Horne 2-3 0-2 6. Totals 19-48 8-13 53.

WAKE FOREST -- Aminu 2-3 0-0 4, Johnson 4-10 1-2 9, McFarland 1-3 2-2 4, Teague 4-8 2-3 10, Williams 3-6 4-5 11, Clark 1-2 0-0 2, Hale 5-7 2-4 17, Smith 1-2 0-0 3, Weaver 3-5 0-2 6, Woods 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-46 11-18 66.

Halftime--WFU 35-25. 3-Point Goals--Wright State 7-23 (Horne 2-3, Evans 2-4, Grote 1-2, Gardner 1-3, Land 1-4, Thomas 0-1, Graham 0-2, Brown 0-4), WFU 7-13 (Hale 5-6, Smith 1-2, Williams 1-2, Aminu 0-1, Johnson 0-2). Rebounds--Wright State 19 (Cooperwood, Graham, Grote 3), WFU 39 (Aminu 7). Assists--Wright State 10 (Gardner 6), WFU 14 (Smith 6). Total Fouls--Wright State 16, WFU 15. A--8,904.