Feb. 23, 2005
Final Stats |
Notes
By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Taron Downey scored 13 points Wednesday night in
No. 6 Wake Forest's 88-47 rout of struggling Longwood.
Eric Williams added 12 points and 11 rebounds to lead five players in double
figures for the Demon Deacons (23-4), who stepped out of a tight Atlantic Coast
Conference race for an easy victory. Wake Forest led by as many as 40 points in
the first half, dominated the glass and scored 30 points off 25 turnovers.
Michael Jefferson scored 14 points for the Lancers (1-29), who extended
their school-record losing streak to 18 games in their first full season of
Division I competition. Longwood shot just 28 percent and was outrebounded
53-34.
The Demon Deacons are 10-3 in the ACC, one game behind league-leading North
Carolina with three games remaining. Wake Forest was coming off a 102-92 loss
at Duke, and returns to league play at home Sunday against Virginia.
And while playing a team ranked No. 330 out of 330 D-I schools in the RPI
ratings won't exactly help the Demon Deacons' strength of schedule, coach Skip
Prosser said Tuesday that he'd probably rather play a game instead of sitting
through a week off.
The Demon Deacons took all the interest out of this one right away, scoring
the game's first 15 points and taking leads of 24-2 and 39-5. That margin grew
to 47-7 on Chris Paul's transition layup off an alley-oop pass from Justin Gray
with 4:33 left in the half.
By that point, Longwood - which had neither the size nor speed to compete
with the Demon Deacons - had missed 15 of 18 shots and committed 10 turnovers.
In fact, Prosser's jumbled starting lineup caused the biggest stir early.
Junior Chris Ellis got his first start since his freshman year, and finished
with 11 points and eight rebounds. Meanwhile, Gray was benched, ending the
junior's string of 51 straight starts.
Ellis, who came in averaging 3.9 points and 2.8 rebounds, scored seven of
Wake Forest's first 10 points. He threw down a slam off a feed from Williams
just 30 seconds into the game, hit a 3-pointer off a pass from Jamaal Levy and
scored inside on another feed from Williams.
Even seldom-used reserve Richard Joyce had his moment, entering the game
about 8 minutes in and slamming down a rebound 14 seconds later.
From there, the Demon Deacons put together a string of dominating stats.
They had made as many field goals as Longwood had attempted by midway through
the half, and had built a 27-8 lead on the boards in the first 13 minutes.
Ellis had nine points and seven rebounds, while Paul and Downey each scored
10 to help the Demon Deacons to a 57-22 halftime lead. It was the Wake Forest's
biggest margin at the break in at least 23 years.
The Demon Deacons led by as many as 46 points in the second half.
