Senior leads Deacs to win

For all that L.D. Williams does for Wake Forest, coaches and teammates say that any points they get from him are gravy.

If so, then there may not be a gravy boat big enough to hold all that Williams produced in last night's 80-69 victory over UNC Wilmington at loud and rocking Trask Coliseum.

Williams nailed eight of eight free throws in the final minute and 11 seconds to deflect a Seahawks' comeback while putting the finishing touches on a career-high 23-point performance. Ish Smith, whipping to the basket off ball screens, tied his career-high of 19 points to go with five assists and four steals and Al-Farouq Aminu contributed 17 points, 13 rebounds and three steals as the Deacons improved to 7-2 going into Sunday's ACC opener against N.C. State.

The Seahawks fell to 4-6.

"He's always going to play hard," senior David Weaver said of Williams. "He's always going to guard the best offensive player out there. He's always going to rebound.

"When we get L.D. on a roll, that's like a bonus right there. He has it in him. Some nights it just doesn't go that way. But (last night) he showed he can really help us on the offensive end."

Williams, a 6-4 senior averaging 7.8 points a game, started fast enough to score 10 of the Deacons' first 16 points. But his greatest impact came down the stretch, after back-to-back 3-pointers by Ahmad Grant and Chad Tomko (12 points) pared what had been a 15 point lead (54-39) to 72-67 with 1:35 remaining.

The Deacons shot 54 percent from the floor and held UNCW to 40 percent, but helped fuel the Seahawks' rally by missing 10 of their first 16 free throws of the second half.

The slippage stopped when Grant fouled Williams to send him to the line with 1:11 remaining. Williams calmly sank both, then hit two more with 50.4 seconds left, two more with 37.7 seconds left and the final two points of the game with 17.5 seconds remaining.

"L.D. Williams got us off to a great start in this game, and did a great job of ending the game for us," Coach Dino Gaudio said. "When we get that kind of point production out of him, he's as good as anybody in the league. I think he's the best defender in the league. I don't care who we're playing, we can put that kid on him.

"And to get 23 points from him, that's huge."

Williams hit six of seven from the floor and 11 of 12 from the line to go with five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

"I'm a basketball player," Williams said. "There's two sides of basketball. What it comes down to is every day at practice -- whether it be after a drill or after practice -- we shoot free throws.

"Most of us get tired of it. But there's situations like I got put into today. We knew it was going to be a tough game to come in here and on the road you've got to make free throws."

The Seahawks were active enough to battle Wake Forest relatively even on the backboards -- pulling down 36 rebounds to 42 by the Deacons -- and block eight shots. But they suffered by not having anybody who could keep Smith out of the lane, especially in the second half when Gaudio resorted to an offensive set with a screen for Smith at the top of the key.

"They kept us on our heels all night," Coach Benny Moss of the Seahawks said. "Ish is very fast. He's a strong kid too. He's not tiny.

"He gets in the lane and gets contact from our bigs and still gets it up on the glass."

Smith took 19 shots from the floor, seven more than any of his teammates. There were 48 fouls called in the game -- 22 on Wake Forest, 26 on UNCW -- which took a toll on Smith's body.

"I'm a little beat up, nicked up," Smith said. "I get in that lane. But it did open up and I got some opportunities.

"This was a big win. People don't know how tough it is down here to win. Not to disrespect them, but we're in the ACC and when we come down here this is a big game. So we really did play well."

dcollins@wsjournal.com.



727-7323

WFU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Aminu 31 7-12 3-7 5-13 1 4 17

McFarland 20 0-4 1-4 2-7 2 4 1

Smith 34 9-19 1-1 0-3 5 2 19

Harris 24 4-7 2-5 0-1 0 4 11

Williams 34 6-7 11-12 1-5 2 1 23

Clark 9 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Stewart 18 2-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 5

Walker 2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Weaver 14 0-0 0-0 0-4 0 3 0

Woods 14 2-2 0-2 1-3 0 2 4

Totals 200 30-56 18-31 12-42 10 22 80

Percentages: FG .536, FT .581. 3-Point Goals: 2-4, .500 (Stewart 1-1, Harris 1-3). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 3 (Weaver, Woods, Aminu). Turnovers: 16 (Smith 3, Aminu 3, Harris 2, McFarland 2, Stewart 2, Weaver 2, Woods, Williams). Steals: 10 (Smith 4, Aminu 3, Harris 2, Williams).

UNCW Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF Pts

Lacy 26 2-6 2-2 2-5 1 2 7

Ohuaregbe 22 3-7 1-4 4-7 0 4 7

Fields 27 4-6 3-5 3-4 0 5 11

Tomko 28 5-14 1-1 0-0 3 4 12

Grant 22 3-9 0-2 1-4 1 3 8

Downey 9 3-6 0-0 0-2 0 4 8

Rendleman 16 2-6 3-4 4-9 0 2 7

Jeralds 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0

Wilson 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Wolf 21 0-2 2-2 0-3 2 1 2

Felder 19 2-4 3-8 1-2 2 0 7

Totals 200 24-60 15-28 15-36 10 26 69

Percentages: FG .400, FT .536. 3-Point Goals: 6-23, .261 (Downey 2-4, Grant 2-5, Lacy 1-4, Tomko 1-7, Wolf 0-1, Felder 0-2). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 8 (Fields 4, Rendleman 2, Grant, Felder). Turnovers: 18 (Tomko 6, Fields 3, Ohuaregbe 3, Lacy 2, Rendleman, Wolf). Steals: 3 (Tomko 2, Felder).

Wake Forest 37 43 -- 80


N.C.-Wilmington 30 39 -- 69

A--4,384