Al-Farouq Aminu returned to Wake Forest as a sophomore, in part, to refine his game.
The refinement went fine in the Deacons' 76-56 season-opening victory over Oral Roberts last night in front of 9,031 at Joel Coliseum.
Aminu amassed 25 points and 13 rebounds, with 10 of the points coming in a flurry of one minute and 56 seconds.
That extended a 10-point lead to 19 with less than four minutes remaining.
He let the game come to him, and he knew what to do with it when it did.
"That's the reason he's going to be a lottery pick," Coach Scott Sutton of Oral Roberts said.
"He's a great player. We've played against some very good players the last two years and I'd put him up there with the best.
"We got it to 10 and all of a sudden, bam. It's the ball game."
Freshmen Ari Stewart and C.J. Harris made favorable first impressions in their career debuts, combining for 18 points, and seniors Chas McFarland and L.D. Williams scored 10 each.
The Deacons shot 48 percent from the floor and held the Golden Eagles to 39 percent, but did their greatest damage on the backboards.
Wake Forest outrebounded Oral Roberts 51-25, pulling down 20 offensive rebounds to 15 defensive rebounds by the Golden Eagles.
"In the past 10 years or so we've played some very good teams with a lot of very good big guys," Sutton said.
"We've never been dominated on the glass like we were (last night).
"That was the difference in the game. They just killed us on the glass."
The Deacons, even after missing their first nine 3-point attempts, controlled the game with their defense and rebounding on the way to a 19-point lead with nine minutes remaining.
The Golden Eagles, who were led by Kevin Ford's 19 points and nine rebounds, countered with eight straight points to slice the lead to 61-50.
Aminu, whose follow basket had stopped a four-minute drought, then drained a 3-pointer from left of the key for a 13-point lead.
Two possessions later, he saved a fumble by Williams, laid in the basket as he was absorbing a foul, and hit the free throw for a three-point play.
One possession later, Aminu sank another 3-pointer from the left wing as the 35-second clock expired, extending the Deacons' lead to 72-53 with 3:45 remaining.
"You go around the country and you hear people say the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores," Williams said.
"That's what happened with Farouq. He matured a little bit. He knew what he needed to work on in the off-season and he worked on it.
"Every day after practice Farouq was in the gym with one of the coaches, getting better and working on his game.
"I know Farouq wants to be one of the best players in the country, and tonight he showed why."
Aminu, who was projected to be selected in the first round of last June's NBA Draft if he had made himself available, hit eight of 13 shots from the floor.
He connected on three of five from 3-point range and six of seven from the free-throw line.
He had four offensive rebounds to go with nine off the defensive boards and contributed an assist, a block and a steal.
"I just wanted to come back a way better player," Aminu said.
"My goal for this summer was I wanted to be able to beat yesterday's player. I wanted to be better every day."
The Deacons missed 20 field-goal attempts in the first half, but answered with 14 offensive rebounds on the way to a 39-23 halftime lead.
But they didn't make a 3-pointer until Aminu drilled one from the right corner off an assist from Ish Smith with 16½ minutes remaining.
Stewart hit the next two, one from the top of the key for a 52-36 lead with 12:41 left and the other from the left wing with 9½ minutes left for a 59-42 lead.
He finished with 11 points, eight of which came in the second half.
Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest said he was pleased with the play of both Harris and Stewart.
"C.J. did a terrific job of pressuring the basketball," Gaudio said.
"And Ari came in and after he missed the first one he got the jitters out a little bit and made some big shots for us.
"As a matter of fact, after he hit the first one we went back to him a couple of times and he delivered on those. "He had the hot hand, and I have all the confidence in the world in him."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
ORAL ROBERTS
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Morrison 24 1-7 2-4 0-0 4 3 4
Craion 34 6-12 0-0 1-3 1 1 13
Ford 31 9-13 1-5 5-9 2 3 19
Pearson 25 1-6 0-0 2-5 0 4 2
Stokes 26 2-5 0-0 0-1 1 1 5
Rogers 12 0-4 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Holdman 10 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 2 0
Niles 25 4-11 1-2 1-3 2 2 11
Bell-Holter 13 1-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 2
Totals 200 24-62 4-11 10-25 12 19 56
Percentages: FG .387, FT .364. 3-Point Goals: 4-22, .182 (Niles 2-7, Craion 1-3, Stokes 1-4, Bell-Holter 0-1, Pearson 0-2, Rogers 0-2, Morrison 0-3). Team Rebounds: 0. Blocked Shots: 1 (Ford). Turnovers: 13 (Morrison 3, Pearson 3, Craion 2, Holdman 2, Niles 2, Ford). Steals: 8 (Stokes 2, Niles 2, Pearson 2, Rogers, Ford). Technical Fouls: None.
WAKE FOREST
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Aminu 29 8-13 6-7 4-13 1 2 25
Woods 15 0-1 0-1 4-5 0 2 0
McFarland 29 4-7 2-4 4-7 1 3 10
Smith 30 2-12 0-2 1-4 4 1 4
Williams 29 4-10 2-3 4-9 4 2 10
Harris 20 3-3 2-3 0-2 4 2 8
Stewart 14 4-8 1-2 2-3 0 0 11
Tucker 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Walker 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Weaver 24 4-5 0-0 1-7 0 2 8
Totals 200 29-60 13-22 20-51 14 14 76
Percentages: FG .483, FT .591. 3-Point Goals: 5-17, .294 (Aminu 3-5, Stewart 2-5, McFarland 0-1, Tucker 0-1, Smith 0-2, Williams 0-3). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots: 2 (Aminu, Weaver). Turnovers: 18 (Smith 5, Williams 4, McFarland 3, Harris 2, Aminu 2, Woods). Steals: 8 (Williams 3, Smith 2, Woods, Harris, Aminu). Technical Fouls: None.
Oral Roberts 23 33 -- 56
Wake Forest 39 37 -- 76
A--9,031.
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