Three trips downcourt, three 3-pointers for Ari Stewart. Then
fellow freshman C.J. Harris took his turn swishing a couple of open
looks from long range.
Nobody told Wake Forest's youngsters they weren't supposed to
shoot this way in the Smith Center.
Harris scored a season-high 20 points, Stewart hit three
consecutive 3s and the Demon Deacons beat No. 24 North Carolina
82-69 on Wednesday night, sending the Tar Heels to their first
three-game losing streak under coach Roy Williams.
"We just wanted to hit them while they're down," Harris said.
"They had lost two straight before us, and the best time to get
somebody is when they're down. That's what we came out and tried to
do."
Ishmael Smith had 20 points, and Al-Farouq Aminu added 13
points and 11 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (13-4, 3-2 Atlantic
Coast Conference).
They entered shooting 33 percent from 3-point range and their
70 3s were the fewest in the ACC. But this time, they shot 56
percent from long range and were 7 of 8 from that distance in the
second half of their first victory in Chapel Hill since 2003.
"That might be the best [3-point shooting] in the history of
Wake Forest, considering how we shoot the ball," coach Dino Gaudio
said.
Will Graves scored 16 points to lead the Tar Heels (12-7,
1-3). The defending national champions, who have dropped four of
five, were playing their first game since falling to No. 24 --
their lowest ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 since February
2006. The losing streak is their longest since they dropped five in
a row under Matt Doherty in 2002-03.
"It's something that we haven't been through. It's something
that we're not enjoying going through," Williams said. "We have no
chance if we fold and we have no chance if we give in."
Harris scored 13 points in the second half and Stewart
finished with 11 for Wake Forest, which was coming off a 20-point
loss three nights earlier at Duke (No. 6 ESPN/USA Today, No. 7 AP).
The Demon Deacons salvaged a split against their top instate rivals
by winning their second straight against North Carolina and
improving to 5-17 inside the Tar Heels' spacious arena.
"I don't want to tell you guys, but inside, it feels great,"
Smith said with a laugh.
The senior from Concord, N.C., lost both of his previous
visits here by an average of 26.5 points.
North Carolina made it a one-point game shortly after
halftime before Wake Forest's first-year guards fueled the 18-6 run
that put the Demon Deacons in complete control.
Stewart closed the run with three straight 3s in a 90-second
span, capping it with a 25-footer that stretched it to 58-45 with
10:45 to play.
"He does that all the time in practice," Harris said.
Once the spurt ended, the 3s kept falling: Harris swished a
pair 30 seconds apart from the same spot on the left wing,
stretching the lead to 68-53 with 7:26 left.
"They're not freshmen anymore," senior guard L.D. Williams
said, adding that he told them "you guys are tweeners now. You know
what's going on. You know how everything's going. That 'I don't
know' and 'I didn't know' and 'We're freshmen,' that's not an
excuse anymore, and they know that."
Freshman Travis Wear and Deon Thompson had 13 points apiece,
and Graves pulled North Carolina to 40-39 with a 3 with 17 minutes
remaining before the Tar Heels faded to the fourth 1-3 start to ACC
play in the proud program's history.
"The freshmen are trying ... but they haven't been through
these wars yet," Williams said. "If I live long enough, maybe it
will help us a couple of years down the road. But I don't know if I
can live through this."
Two key members of North Carolina's front line were on the
bench in sport coats and ties. No. 2 scorer Ed Davis sat out with a
left ankle injury and 7-footer Tyler Zeller missed his third
straight game with a stress fracture in his right foot.
But it was in the backcourt where Wake Forest had its way
with the Tar Heels.
North Carolina's guards have struggled since Ty Lawson and
Wayne Ellington left early for the NBA -- and the Demon Deacons
exploited that weakness repeatedly at both ends of the court, with
Wear calling Smith "a jet."
"We knew coming in that once he got the ball, it needed to be
a team effort to try to stop him from penetrating," Wear said. "He
still got in there and just caused havoc once he got in there."
Smith simply beat the Tar Heels downcourt three times for
early layups before Harris and Stewart took over from long range
after the break. Meanwhile, North Carolina finished 6 for 26 from
beyond the arc against the ACC's best defense against the 3 and
didn't score any fast-break points.
Smith had 10 points in the first half for the Demon Deacons,
who went ahead to stay during a run of 10 straight points midway
through. Gary Clark put them up for good with -- what else? -- a
3-pointer about nine minutes in that made it 19-18.
