Wake Forest defeats South Carolina State 105-74
Wake Forest (5-1) dominated the South Carolina State Bulldogs (0-5) to the tune of a 105-74 victory at home on Wednesday night.
Stepping up in the absence of the injured Daivien Williamson, sophomore Cameron Hildreth led the way with a career-high 19 points on 7-10 shooting. He also chipped in eight rebounds with two steals.
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Williamson was held out of this one due to a back injury that he re-aggravated in the loss to Loyola Marymount on Sunday.
While Williamson is now injured, Marist transfer Jao Ituka is now healthy. Ituka hit 2-4 shots for 10 points in 19 minutes of action in his season debut. We still haven't seen this Wake Forest team at full strength yet because of the mismatch injury timelines of these two guards.
Ty Appleby continued to be a leader on the floor, scoring 13 points while only attempting four shots from the field. He dished out nine assists and stole the ball three times, but committed four turnovers. His +/- of 28 was a team high.
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Damari Monsanto started his second game ever as a Demon Deacon, scoring 11 points and connecting on 4/8 attempts from long range. He added five rebounds and two steals.
The Deacs started slow, only leading 23-16 over twelve minutes into the game. The home team closed the half on a 28-11 run, taking a 51-27 lead into the break. From that point on, Steve Forbes' group was on cruise control. The Bulldogs applied full court pressure to speed up the pace of play, but all that did was lead to a ton of easy run outs. Wake Forest had nine dunks in this game, with the majority of them being alley-oops in transition.
The Bulldogs were horrendous shooting from behind the arc, making only 4/24 attempts (16.7%). Similar to Utah Valley (4/31, 12.9% from range), a lot of them were pretty good looks, but the team was simply ice cold.
Up next for the Demon Deacons is a home matchup with the 1-4 Hampton Pirates. Tipoff is set for 12:30 p.m. ET at the Joel.
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