Harris leads Wake Forest past Furman

Published Dec. 18, 2012 8:17 p.m. ET

foxsports

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- C.J. Harris scored 20 points and Wake Forest pulled away to beat Furman 79-55 on Tuesday night.

Travis McKie added 16 points and freshman Tyler Cavanaugh added 10 of his season-high 12 during the decisive spurt that bridged the halves for the Demon Deacons (5-5).

Playing their first game in 10 days because of final exams, they shot 53.8 percent on 28-of-52 shooting, outscored the Paladins 46-12 in the paint and used a 32-8 run during a span of roughly 11 minutes to cruise to just their second win since Nov. 23.

Stephen Croone and Colin Reddick scored 12 apiece for Furman (3-7). The Paladins had trouble with Wake Forest's length and full-court press, turning it over 13 times and losing for the fifth time in six games.

The Demon Deacons put this one out of reach shortly before and immediately after halftime, taking the lead for good early during a run of 10 straight points to end the half before coming out of the locker room and continuing to add to it.

That was thanks in large part to Cavanaugh, who had seven consecutive points late in the run. Devin Thomas' three-point play with 11:25 left capped the run and made it 59-38 -- Wake Forest's largest lead of the season to that point.

Harris scored 20 for the second straight game, after his career-high 28-point night Dec. 8 against Seton Hall. In this one, he needed barely 8 minutes to reach double figures and surpassed his 13-point average by halftime with 16, hitting six of his first seven attempts and making 4 of 5 from 3-point range during the opening 20 minutes.

Still, it took a while for Wake Forest to separate itself from a Furman team that entered at No. 346 -- of 347 Division I schools -- in an unofficial online RPI replication and has just one win over a Division I team.

It wasn't until a run of 10 straight points during the final 2-plus minutes of the half that Wake Forest could exhale a bit, and Harris made the key plays that bookended the burst.

He started it with a 3 with 2:11 left that tied it at 30, and after McKie finished at the rim on consecutive possessions, Harris had a pretty feed that set up Cavanaugh's 3 with about 2 seconds before the buzzer, making it 37-30.

That came after Bryant Irwin's 3 from the corner gave Furman its last lead, 30-27, with 2:25 left.