The men’s basketball team held two of Wake Forest’s leading scorers, sophomore point guard Jeff Teague (20.3 ppg) and freshman forward Al-Farouq Aminu (13.0 ppg), to just 12 and three points respectively Thursday night. But it could not stop sophomore forward James Johnson as the Wolfpack (15-11, 5-8) fell 85-78 to No. 13 Wake Forest (21-5, 8-5) at Joel Coliseum in Winson Salem.
“Our guys are just working,” Lowe said. “They know they’re playing against an explosive player, a guy that could put up big numbers, and I think our guys were just trying to concentrate on making it as tough as possible. I give [Teague] credit that he didnít force anything. He certainly is a team player.”
Johnson, who averages 14.3 points per game, exploded for a career-high 28 points and 18 rebounds for the Demon Deacons. It was Johnson’s ninth double-double and his sixth 20-point game of the season. Senior center Ben McCauley said Johnson made the difference for the Deacons.
“Johnson, he played a great game. He was the glue that held them together,” McCauley said. “You got a guy playing that well, it’s tough to beat.”
Sophomore forward Tracy Smith led all Pack scorers with 18 points, going 7-11 from the field in just 20 minutes of playing time.
The Wolfpack started the game with a hot hand, hitting nine of its first 14 shots, but Wake Forest went on a 20-2 run to build a 39-24 lead with 4:53 left in the first half.
Wake shot 63.3 percent, compared to State’s 42.9 percent, to take a 43-35 lead into halftime. McCauley said the Pack cannot afford to allow teams to get the early momentum.
“You can’t get down by a lot of points and expect to make a comeback and win,” McCauley said. “We just got down too much at one point. We did fight back, but we just couldn’t pull it out.”
The Pack got destroyed on the boards in the first half, getting out-rebounded 21-12 by the Demon Deacons. State would pull down 27 rebounds compared to Wake’s 42 and got beat on the offensive glass 13-7 on the game.
“We were blocking out at times, and they were just more aggressive. They put the body on us and pushed us under, and we didnít push them back the way we should have,” Lowe said. “It’s a physical ballgame and the officials are letting you play. You’ve got to be a man and stand up and back them out of there.”
The Wolfpack finished the game with 19 assists compared to just eight turnoversóthe only time this season the Pack has finished with fewer give-aways was the Nov. 25 matchup against Winthrop in which it had six. Point guards Javi Gonzalez and Farnold Degand accounted for 11 of the Wolfpack’s assists. Degand, a redshirt junior, said the guards have gained confidence as the season has progressed.
“I believe we’re all more aggressive,” Degand said. “In the beginning, as far as the point guard was concerned, we werenít asserting ourselves as much as we should have.”
With a 62-55 Miami win over Virginia Thursday night, the Pack now falls to 10th in the ACC with three games left in the regular season. State will next face Maryland at 1 p.m. in the RBC Center Sunday.
“I feel good about our team,” Lowe said. “Our last few games, we’ve been playing well, executing offensively, defensively we’ve been good. I feel pretty good about where we are. Now we got to go back and get a win at home against a tough ball club.”
