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Deacs move to 28-0 against Southern Conference teams.

Darius Songaila, who finished with 17 points, is fouled as he goes hard to the hoop.

Men's Basketball Home HEADLINES No. 21 Wake Forest Opens Season with 94-48 Blowout of N.C. Central Basketball Game Notes - Wake Forest vs. N.C. Central Grobe and Gaudio Coaches Shows To Air Thursday RELATED LINKS • Follow all of the college basketball action at CollegeSports.com   • Email this to a friend

Dec. 15, 1999

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - It appears there are no easy games when North Carolina schools face off.

Darius Songaila scored 17 points and Robert O'Kelley added 10 second-half points as No. 25 Wake Forest held off North Carolina-Greensboro 71-62 on Wednesday night.

"While we're pleased to win the basketball game, we're certainly not satisfied with the way we played," Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said. "I think Greensboro had a little to do with that because they were very well prepared. I thought they played extremely well."

The Demon Deacons (6-1) held a 10-point lead with 3:01 left in the game, but the Spartans (5-2) cut the deficit to 67-62 with 49.6 seconds left on Courtney Eldridge's layup. The Demon Deacons were 4-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 45 seconds.

"We got some good shot opportunities and got the right people shooting the ball and we stayed in there," said first-year Greensboro coach Fran McCaffery, who played one season for Wake Forest in 1977-78 before transferring to Penn. "It would have been nice for us to have had a couple of stops when we needed them, but that's what the good teams do even when they're not playing their best basketball."

Odom liked his team's effort even if the execution left something to be desired.

"As the game picked up a little bit in the second half, and we played with a little more abandon, it was just hard to close the game out," Odom said. "Still, I thought we had some guys that played pretty well."

Demetrius Cherry had 19 points for the Spartans, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. Nathan Jameson added 14 points, and Eldridge had 13 points and nine assists.

Wake Forest, 28-0 against Southern Conference teams under Odom, led by as many as 10 points early in the second half. Forward Antwan Scott scored consecutive baskets to give Wake Forest a 46-36 lead with 12:53 to go.

The Spartans went on a 13-6 run to cut the deficit to 52-49 with 8:15 left. Eldridge's three-point play completed the run.

Freshman forward Josh Howard, who had nine points and four steals, scored Wake Forest's final field goal of the game with 3:42 left to make it 62-54. Thereafter, the Demon Deacons were 9-for-16 from the free-throw line.