WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — James Johnson had career highs with 28 points and 18 rebounds to lead No. 13 Wake Forest past North Carolina State 85-78 on Thursday night.
Ishmael Smith added a season-high 18 points and Chas McFarland had 15 for the Demon Deacons (21-5, 8-5 Atlantic Coast Conference).
They shot 52.5 percent and led nearly all the way, but allowed most of an early 15-point lead to slip away.
Wake Forest recovered in time to improve to 13-1 at home and win for the third time in four games. The victory moved the Demon Deacons into a three-way tie for third in the conference standings with No. 12 Clemson and No. 23 Florida State.
Tracy Smith scored 18 points to lead five double-figure scorers for the Wolfpack (15-11, 5-8), who were denied their second sweep of Wake Forest in coach Sidney Lowe’s three seasons.
Johnson had a double-double by halftime and was 12-of-16 from the field to surpass his previous top performance of 26 points — which he matched in the up-and-down Demon Deacons’ most recent outing, a 101-91 loss at No. 7 Duke four nights earlier. His production made off nights from two key teammates that much easier to take.
Jeff Teague finished with 12 points — nine fewer than his average — on 3-of-12 shooting, while freshman Al-Farouq Aminu missed all six of his shots and had just three points in his least productive night of the season.
Farnold Degand and Ben McCauley both had 12 points, and Dennis Horner and Brandon Costner added 10 apiece for N.C. State, which has lost two of three.
The Wolfpack made things interesting late by getting within two points four times midway through the second half — the last coming on McCauley’s layup with 12:15 remaining — and then keeping it within three points late. Courtney Fells’ 3-pointer from the left corner made it 74-71 with 2:25 to play.
But Johnson scored on the Demon Deacons’ next two trips down court, hitting a jumper and then slamming home Smith’s alley-oop pass with just under 2 minutes to play to make it 78-71. Wake Forest went 7-of-8 from the line in the final minute.
Johnson helped Wake Forest hit 15 of its first 20 shots, and the Demon Deacons held N.C. State to one field goal during a 7-minute stretch while stretching their lead to 15 points on Aminu’s free throw with 4:53 left in the first half.
Meanwhile, the Wolfpack couldn’t have been much worse during that span, missing 11 of 12 shots. But McCauley hit a layup roughly 40 seconds later to start the 20-7 run that spanned halftime and made it a game again. Neither team led by more than nine after that.
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