A little wake-up call

Wake Forest worked through its rust in time to work Radford over in the final 10 minutes of last night's 83-61 victory in front of 11,253 at Joel Coliseum.

Playing for the first time since beating East Carolina on Dec. 22, the sixth-ranked Deacons broke a surprisingly close game open by scoring 27 of the game's final 35 points. The victory improved Wake Forest to 12-0 going into what promises to be its toughest challenge so far, at Brigham Young on Saturday.

Radford fell to 4-9, despite getting 15 points and 16 rebounds from center Artsiom Parakhouski and 14 points and seven rebounds from forward Joel Lynch-Flohr.

The Deacons, over the first 30 minutes last night, did what teams that hadn't played in a week do. They missed easy shots against the Highlanders' zone, lost their man on defense and were beaten to loose balls.

Sophomore James Johnson said that the four days the team took off for Christmas shouldn't stand as an excuse.

"We were watching us play," Johnson said. "All the little chippies we missed. They out-hustled us on the second-shot opportunities.

"That might be from the break, but there's no excuses. We just had to go out and play harder, and that's all we did."

Sophomore Jeff Teague hit four of six shots from the floor in the second half to lead the Deacons with 19 points and four steals, freshman Al-Farouq Aminu had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Johnson contributed 12 points and 12 rebounds. But all three found themselves on the bench, along with fellow starters L.D. Williams and Chas McFarland, after opening the second half with three straight turnovers and blowing a 39-32 halftime lead.

Coach Dino Gaudio sent in five new players: Ish Smith, Harvey Hale, Gary Clark, Tony Woods and David Weaver. The Deacons got a 3-pointer from Clark and a three-point play from Hale for a 47-41 lead, but after Radford answered with seven straight points to retake the lead, Gaudio reinserted his starters.

Wake Forest responded with seven straight points on a layup by Teague off a pass from Johnson, a layup by Johnson off a pass from Aminu, and a length-of-the-court drive by Teague that resulted in a three-point play and a 54-48 lead.

"I think the message was clear," Gaudio said. "If they're not going to go out there and play with the emotion that they need to, there was nothing else I could say to them. I had already barked at them a couple of times in the second half, and at halftime.

"I had nothing else to say. There were no other words. So you might as well play the other guys."

Gaudio said he was impressed by the way that the starters responded, both on the bench and after they returned to the game. Williams said he was happy to see the second string provide a lift, but he admitted that the lesson stung.

"It's tough to sit down," Williams said. "But Coach proved a point. That's why he's a great coach. He let us know that it doesn't all revolve around us.

"There's other guys on the team who can contribute."

The Highlanders trailed only 56-53 after Phillip Martin hit a jumper with 10:09 left, but had little left. They missed nine of their remaining 13 shots and scored on just four of their final 18 possessions.

And, after controlling the tempo with a 2-3 zone, the Highlanders allowed the pace of the game to get away from them. Wake Forest scored six of its final nine field goals on fast breaks.

Four of Radford's starters played at least 33 minutes. Point guard Amir Johnson played 37 minutes as his substitute Chris McEachin struggled.

"They are a handful for anybody, and they wore us down," Coach Brad Greenberg of Radford said.

"As well as I think we played for a pretty good stretch of the game, it was just real tough for us to be able to do it for 40 minutes and keep it close enough to where it was a real game down the stretch.

"About the 30-minute mark, or 32-minute mark -- somewhere around there -- the wheels came off a little bit. But I'm really proud of our team. They were very competitive."

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

RADFORD -- Lynch-Flohr 7-12 0-1 14, Parakhouski 6-16 3-6 15, McDuffy 3-9 0-0 7, Johnson 2-11 2-2 7, Thomas 6-11 0-0 14, McEachin 0-1 0-0 0, Martin 1-2 0-0 2, Hall 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 26-64 5-9 61.

WAKE FOREST -- Aminu 7-15 4-7 18, Johnson 6-11 0-1 12, McFarland 2-8 6-6 10, Teague 6-13 7-7 19, Williams 2-5 1-3 5, Clark 3-5 0-0 8, Hale 2-4 1-1 6, Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Weaver 1-2 1-2 3, Woods 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 30-68 20-27 83.

Halftime--Wake Forest 39-32. 3-Point Goals--Radford 4-12 (Thomas 2-3, Johnson 1-4, McDuffy 1-4, McEachin 0-1), Wake Forest 3-11 (Clark 2-3, Hale 1-2, Johnson 0-1, Williams 0-2, Teague 0-3). Fouled Out--None. Rebounds--Radford 45 (Parakhouski 16), Wake Forest 39 (Johnson 12). Assists--Radford 8 (Johnson 4), Wake Forest 11 (Johnson 5). Total Fouls--Radford 22, Wake Forest 13. A--11,253.