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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- There was no disputing how
Wake Forest (No. 23 ESPN/USA Today, No. 25 AP) beat Minnesota 85-79 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge -- experience.
Broderick Hicks made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 58 seconds left --
his only basket of the game -- as the Demon Deacons rallied over the
final minute to pull out the win Tuesday night.
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Player of Game
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| GAME STATISTICS |
| MIN |
PTS |
REB |
BLK |
FGS |
FTS |
| 32 |
23 |
10 |
2 |
5-14 |
13-13 |
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"Hicks didn't make a shot all game until he needed one,"
Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. "That's a team of experience."
Five of Wake Forest's games have been decided by seven points or
less -- four of them victories.
"In the last couple of minutes we got a little tentative,"
Monson said. "We were trying to protect the lead and we didn't
know how. We hadn't been there. This team is young and I think that
showed."
Hicks, one of four senior starters for Wake Forest, had been
benched to start the second half. After missing his first seven
attempts of the game, he nailed the key basket from the left
baseline to turn the tide.
"Some of those seven I believe I should have hit," Hicks said
of his earlier misses. "They felt good, they just didn't fall. I
guess my teammates had enough confidence in me to throw me the ball
and I had enough confidence to keep shooting. I knew one of them
had to fall sooner or later."
The Demon Deacons (5-1) got 23 points from Darius Songaila, 21
from Josh Howard and 19 from Antwan Scott to give the Atlantic
Coast Conference a 3-1 lead after the first day of the nine-game
series.
Duke beat Iowa and Maryland defeated Illinois for the ACC's
other two wins, while Ohio State downed North Carolina State. There
are five more games in the series Wednesday night.
Wake Forest was miserable from 3-point range most of the game,
making just 4-of-24 before Hicks gave his team its first lead of
the second half in a game in which neither club lead by more than
10.
Minnesota (3-1) was up 79-74 with 1:30 left, but Wake Forest
scored the final 11 points as Scott made a three-point play, Hicks
sank his big shot, Ervin Murray made two free throws, Songaila two
and Howard one.
|  | | Antwan Scott, left, scored 19 points, including a key 3-point play late in the second half. |
"We just kept chipping away and chipping away," Craig Dawson
said. "That's something the coaching staff has told us, no matter
what the score is continue to play, continue to play. Our guys did
that tonight."
Wake Forest finished 24-for-28 from the foul line as Songaila
sank all 13 he attempted.
Dusty Rychart scored 20 of his 22 points in the first half to
lead the Golden Gophers.
Minnesota had wins over Mercer, N.C.-Asheville and Eastern
Washington coming in, but outplayed the Preseason NIT runner-up for
most of the game, using a zone defense to force the Demon Deacons
into poor shooting.
But top scorer Michael Bauer missed two 3-pointers from the same
spot in a span of 40 seconds down the stretch that helped seal
Minnesota's fate.
"I feel like Tom Hanks on that island," Wake Forest coach Skip
Prosser said. "I was starting to draw faces on the basketballs on
the sideline. Somehow we survived.
"I give them credit to Minnesota for controlling the game 37,
38 minutes. But our players showed great character."
Minnesota jumped on top quickly but then its offense hit the
skids as guards Kevin Burleson and Travarus Bennett got in early
foul trouble.
The Golden Gophers missed 10 straight shots and turned it over
six times as Wake Forest went up by eight midway through the half.
Minnesota got hot over the final seven minutes of the half as
Burleson sank a 3-poiner and 10-footer in the lane to help put the
Demon Deacons down at the half for the first time this season.
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Minnesota vs. Wake Forest