Wake Forest's 90-50 thrashing of Elon yesterday at Joel Coliseum was evidence that whatever lightning it caught in a bottle at Gonzaga has a shelf life of at least eight days.
Playing with a verve and confidence nowhere to be seen in the previous home game -- a 78-68 loss to William & Mary on Nov. 28 -- the Deacons shot 53 percent from the floor, held the Phoenix to 31 percent and won the rebounding battle 53-27.
They led by 11 early in the second half, and then sent the Phoenix packing with a 39-8 surge during the next 10 minutes.
Wake Forest improved to 6-2 going into Wednesday's game at UNC Wilmington. Elon fell to 3-7.
"I had seen games at Gonzaga -- that was a tremendous win in a tough environment," Coach Matt Matheny of Elon said, referring to the Deacons' 77-75 victory on Dec. 5. "I'd seen them play at Purdue, and I felt like today, my impression was they were better defensively than I had seen them."
Freshman Ari Stewart, building on his season-high 17-point performance at Gonzaga, drilled six of 10 field-goal attempts yesterday to lead the Deacons with 16 points. Five other Deacons scored at least nine points, including sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds despite not starting for only the second time of his career.
"We have confidence," senior guard Ish Smith said. "We do have confidence. Not cockiness, but we do have confidence.
"And we do know we have a whole lot of stuff to work on so we can be a Top 10 team."
Aminu said he was late for the walk-through before yesterday's game. Coach Dino Gaudio said that the team moves off campus after the end of exams and that Aminu didn't arrange transportation to get to the Miller Center on campus on time.
Aminu started the second half, and Gaudio said afterward that he expects to start the regular lineup of Smith, C.J. Harris, L.D. Williams, Aminu and Chas McFarland at UNC Wilmington.
"All of a sudden (Aminu) is looking around and he doesn't have transportation," Gaudio said. "But there's no excuses for that. There's none. There's no excuse. But that's why he didn't start."
Wake Forest broke the game open early in the second half by holding Elon to two field goals and eight points in a 13-minute stretch of 27 possessions. Reserve Chris Long led Elon with 11 points and Drew Spradlin scored 10, but Elon managed three 3-pointers on 24 attempts.
"When you have length like that and you move your feet like they moved their feet today, then you're not going to give up many open shots," Matheny said. "I felt like we could have screened better to get open shots, but I also felt like they destroyed our screens.
"So that's one thing in particular they did well. They blew up our screens."
During his last two games Stewart, a freshman from Marietta, Ga., has scored 33 points in 33 minutes. Gaudio said the Stewart's time will increase as his defense improves.
"I tell those guys I don't want them looking over their shoulder," Gaudio said. "If they're open, go ahead and shoot the basketball. He's very confident right now where he is and I'm happy with that.
"And as long as he gets his defense better, he's going to play a lot of minutes for us. You can't get 12 and your guy gets 14. That's minus two. But he's getting there."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
ELON
Min FG-A FT-A RO-T A PF Pts
Dugas 23 0-4 1-2 0-2 1 2 1
Constantine 21 3-3 0-0 0-3 0 2 6
Bonney 16 2-5 0-0 0-1 1 1 4
Spradlin 25 4-12 0-0 0-4 2 0 10
Carter 27 3-11 3-6 1-1 1 0 9
Birdette 22 1-1 0-1 4-5 1 2 2
Ervin 3 0-2 0-0 0-1 0 1 0
Long 27 2-8 7-7 1-1 4 0 11
Ogolo 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Watts 14 2-5 0-0 1-6 1 2 4
Douglas 19 1-6 0-0 0-1 0 2 3
Totals 200 18-58 11-16 9-27 11 12 50
Percentages: FG .310, FT .688. 3-Point Goals: 3-24, .125 (Spradlin 2-7, Douglas 1-5, Ogolo 0-1, Carter 0-2, Dugas 0-2, Bonney 0-2, Long 0-5). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 16 (Birdette 3, Spradlin 3, Douglas 2, Long 2, Carter, Bonney, Ogolo, Constantine). Steals: 6 (Carter 2, Spradlin, Long, Constantine, Douglas). Technical Fouls: None.
WAKE FOREST
Min FG-A FT-A RO-T A PF Pts
Woods 14 3-6 0-0 1-7 0 1 6
McFarland 18 2-6 0-0 1-5 3 0 4
Smith 26 6-10 0-1 2-3 3 0 12
Harris 27 3-7 2-2 1-4 4 2 9
Williams 19 5-5 0-0 2-5 1 2 10
Aminu 20 3-10 5-5 5-10 1 0 11
Clark 23 6-6 0-1 0-0 1 3 12
Stewart 19 6-10 3-3 1-4 0 2 16
Bolton 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Fowler 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Walker 11 2-5 0-0 2-6 0 0 4
Godwin 3 0-2 0-0 1-1 0 0 0
Ingle 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 0
Weaver 14 2-4 2-2 2-6 0 3 6
Keenan 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
McDermott 1 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Totals 200 38-72 12-14 18-53 14 15 90
Percentages: FG .528, FT .857. 3-Point Goals: 2-5, .400 (Harris 1-1, Stewart 1-4). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 3 (Woods 2, Walker). Turnovers: 14 (Harris 2, Woods 2, Stewart 2, McFarland 2, Fowler, Aminu, Williams, Smith, Weaver, Clark). Steals: 9 (Clark 4, Smith 3, Harris, Walker). Technical Fouls: None.
Elon 28 22 -- 50
Wake Forest 41 49 -- 90
A--9,457.
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