By Kenneth Cross
WINSTON-SALEM – Wake Forest point guard Boopie Miller scored a career-high 31 points and Wake Forest scored 15 points off of 10 offensive rebounds to take an 87-76 win over Appalachian State in the first round of NIT play in Lawrence Joel Coliseum on Wednesday evening.
Miller was 9-of-14 from the field with three triples and made a perfect 10-of-10 free throws. He scored nine consecutive points to give the Demon Deacons a 30-17 lead with 6:24 to play in the first half.
“We got off to a great start on both ends of the court and showed great toughness and resilience for the entire game,” said Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes. “We led wire to wire, they made a couple of runs but we answered right back.”
Demon Deacons center Efton Reid had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds as he spread his scoring throughout the game.
Appalachian State trailed 36-27 at halftime, but the Mountaineers made a quick run as CJ Huntley made a three-pointer off the right wing to cut Wake’s margin to 49-48 with 13:15 remaining in the game.
The Deacons then went on a 20-5 run over 4:56 when Cam Hildreth scored six of the first eight points in that run to give to push the lead to 57-48 and then Miller nailed three jumpers as he posted a three from the left win to give the Mountaineers a 69-53 advantage with 5:52 remaining.
“We just had some bad possessions and for whatever reason we didn’t get to the free throw line, 31 free throws to 8. We couldn’t finish. We had a little bit of a drought. I thought we had some good looks and there was a lot of pressure on our defense,” said Appalachian State head coach Dustin Kerns.
Steve Forbes saw his team lead from the beginning in what was a very emotional game for both teams.
“We led wire to wire, they made a couple of runs but we answered right back,” explained Forbes. “We held them to two offensive rebounds in the second half, so they didn’t get a lot of easy baskets.”
The Mountaineers led by 16 points from CJ Huntley as Terence Harcum followed with 14 and then Tre’Von Spiller also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Mountaineers finished 27-7, the best record in program history. The team won the Sun Belt Conference regular season with a 16-2 record, which was also the best league record in the history of the program.
Wake Forest will entertain Georgia on Sunday at 4 p.m. EST which is a rematch of a an early season matchup where the Deacons dropped an 80-77 decision back on Nov. 10