The Last Ones Standing: Deacs beat Tigers 78-66 to remain undefeated

CLEMSON

While Clemson was in the process of paring a 14-point lead to one yesterday, Wake Forest's players kept reassuring each other in huddles.

"Everybody was saying, ‘Stick together, we're good,'" sophomore Jeff Teague said.

They did.

And they were.

The second-ranked Deacons sailed through a raging storm to reach uncharted waters, beating the previously undefeated Tigers 78-68 amid the pandemonium of Littlejohn Coliseum for their first 16-0 record in school history. Wake Forest, 3-0 in ACC play, became the only undefeated team in major-college basketball with Pittsburgh's 69-63 loss last night to Louisville.

Clemson fell to 16-1 and 2-1.

"It's a great achievement," junior Chas McFarland said. "But we feel as a team we can do so much better. I feel like we didn't even play that well today and we still won by 10.

"There's just so many little things that we need to get better at, and I feel the team knows that too."

Teague scored 24 points, James Johnson contributed 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, and Al-Farouq Aminu had 12 rebounds, 10 points and four blocks. But Coach Dino Gaudio was most impressed by his team's defensive effort as the Deacons, led by Johnson, wing L.D. Williams and center McFarland, held the Tigers to 33.8 percent from the floor and 23.1 percent from 3-point range.

After two free throws by Trevor Booker cut the lead to 61-60 with 4:54 remaining, Clemson managed only a free throw and a field goal over its next seven possessions as the Deacons extended their lead back to 10.

"We knew our defense would hold up, and that as long as we stayed patient and we kept our poise we'd be OK," Johnson said. "It was so loud that my ears were ringing. I couldn't really talk to my team as much as I wanted to. When we were in the huddle it sounded like we were just lip-talking.

"But we pulled it together and got a big win and that shows how much heart we've got."

Clemson, for the second year in a row, used its withering full-court pressure to slice through the Deacons' lead. But unlike last year, when the Tigers rallied from an eight-point deficit to win in overtime, the Deacons yesterday were able to break through the traps for layups and dunks.

"I told our kids at halftime, fellows, we've got to have layups or dunks," Gaudio said. "(I said) ‘If we don't have layups and dunks, pull it out and run offense. We don't want quick threes, or tough twos.'

"And we were doing that in the first half."

The dunk that had Teague shaking his head came after Clemson had pulled to one point behind, when he beat the press and dished off to Aminu for a soaring one-handed dunk.

"I know it's going to be on SportsCenter," Teague said. "I'm going to see it tonight. But those kinds of plays are what you have to do against them.

"That was a huge play. We had to have that."

The Deacons had the answer for Clemson's three primary scorers with Johnson on K.C. Rivers, Williams on 3-point specialist Terrence Oglesby and McFarland on Booker. Rivers and Oglesby both managed to score 15, despite missing more than half their shots. But Booker, at 6-7, 240-pounds, was stymied by McFarland's 7-0 height and considerable reach, and finished with only three field goals on nine attempts for nine points.

The Tigers trailed 64-60 with four minutes left when Booker faced up in the lane. Fading away to get the shot up over McFarland, he missed a shot that the Deacons rebounded and turned into a fast break and three-point play by Johnson off an assist from Williams.

Johnson scored off McFarland's baseline pass, McFarland tapped in a miss by Ish Smith and the capacity crowd of 10,000 began filing out of Littlejohn.

"I'll tell you what, Chas does a terrific job when he's challenged," Gaudio said. "I'm not saying he gets the best of anybody, but he'll fight Tyler (Hansbrough) and he did a good job tonight fighting Trevor.

"He competes. He competes. He did a real nice job for us, he really did."

The Deacons had won their first 15 games of a season only once, in 1926-27. They emerged from the nonconference segment of their schedule at 13-0 facing games at home against North Carolina and on the road against Boston College and Clemson in the span of seven days.

They had enough left on the seventh day to outrebound Clemson 48-39 and overcome 19 turnovers by shooting 48 percent from the floor and blocking 11 shots.

"I thought our guys showed a lot of heart," Gaudio said. "When they cut it to one, it was pretty loud in there.

"But we bounced back. We've shown a lot of resiliency all year. We've always played with a big heart this year. That was a terrific win. That was a terrific win."

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

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

Aminu 33 6-10 0-0 1-10 1 3 12

Johnson 33 7-10 5-6 1-8 1 3 19

McFarland 32 2-7 0-0 4-12 3 1 4

Teague 35 5-12 13-18 0-2 5 2 24

Williams 30 4-7 2-2 1-3 2 3 11

Clark 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Hale 7 0-1 2-2 0-1 0 0 2

Smith 15 2-7 0-0 2-3 4 0 4

Weaver 6 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 3 0

Woods 8 1-2 0-0 1-2 0 3 2

Totals 200 27-56 22-28 12-48 16 18 78

Percentages: FG .482, FT .786. 3-Point Goals: 2-9, .222 (Williams 1-2, Teague 1-4, Aminu 0-1, Hale 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 11 (Aminu 4, Johnson 3, McFarland 2, Teague, Williams). Turnovers: 19 (Teague 5, Smith 4, Aminu 3, McFarland 2, Williams 2, Woods, Weaver, Johnson). Steals: 7 (Johnson 3, Teague 2, Aminu, Hale). Technical Fouls: None.

CLEMSON Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Rivers 32 6-13 1-2 4-6 1 1 15

Booker 35 3-9 3-5 2-8 2 2 9

Sykes 26 3-11 2-5 4-6 0 3 8

Stitt 28 6-11 1-3 1-1 3 5 13

Oglesby 29 5-12 2-3 0-2 1 2 15

Smith 12 0-4 0-0 1-4 3 2 0

Young 12 0-3 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Potter 10 2-6 0-0 1-1 0 5 4

Narcisse 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Grant 15 1-8 2-2 7-9 0 1 4

Totals 200 26-77 11-20 21-39 11 21 68

Percentages: FG .338, FT .550. 3-Point Goals: 5-23, .217 (Oglesby 3-8, Rivers 2-6, Booker 0-1, Potter 0-1, Young 0-2, Smith 0-2, Stitt 0-3). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 9 (Booker 5, Stitt 2, Grant, Sykes). Turnovers: 11 (Stitt 4, Sykes 3, Young, Smith, Rivers). Steals: 10 (Stitt 5, Smith 2, Booker, Sykes, Potter). Technical Fouls: None.

Wake Forest 32 46 -- 78
Clemson 27 41 -- 68

A--10,000.