Even though he's not starting for Wake Forest's men's basketball team, freshman Ari Stewart has become a key player in the Demon Deacons' recent success.
Stewart scored 16 points in 19 minutes to lead five players in double figures as host Wake Forest won its second straight game, rolling past Elon 90-50 for a nonconference victory on Sunday in Winston-Salem.
Al-Farouq Aminu added 11 points and 10 rebounds, Ishmael Smith and Gary Clark each scored 12 points and L.D. Williams had 10 for the Demon Deacons (6-2). The ACC team went from a 13-point margin at halftime to lead by 44 points in the second half.
"I guess we had to knock the rust off a little bit," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said after the Demon Deacons' first game in eight days. "We were in a dogfight, but we played very well in the second half. We shared the ball well, we rebounded the ball well and our transition defense was much better. But our bench really gave us another great lift."
The key to that was Stewart, who scored a season-high 17 points in Wake Forest's 77-75 win over then-No. 17 Gonzaga on Dec. 5.
He made his presence felt immediately off the bench. Stewart scored seven of his nine first-half points during a 9-0 run that saw the Demon Deacons turn what had been a two-point margin into their first double-digit lead at 23-12 on Aminu's layup with 9:53 left.
"You just go out every game and play the best you can," said Stewart, who has scored in double figures in four of Wake Forest's first eight games. "I've still got to work on my defense -- I have a tendency to swipe at the ball -- but I've always been told that if I'm open, then shoot it. I'm good at creating my own shot. If I feel I can beat my man, then I'll do it."
Chris Long scored 11 points and Drew Spradlin had 10 for Elon, a Southern Conference team that shot just 31 percent from the field in losing for the fifth time in its past six games.
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Rhode Island 80, Boston College 69: Keith Cothran scored 19 points, and Delroy James added 15 to lead the Rams over the host Eagles.
Lamonte Ulmer had 13 points, and Akeem Richmond added 11 for the Rams (8-1).
Rhode Island, which plays in the Atlantic-10, hit nine of 15 3-point attempts. The Eagles (6-4) were just 3-for-17 from 3-point range.
The loss was the Eagles' second straight against an opponent from a weaker conference. They lost 74-67 to Harvard on Wednesday.
Rhode Island beat Boston College for only the 12th time in the 49-game series, which began in January 1911.
Clemson 82, Furman 63: Trevor Booker had season highs with 25 points and 14 rebounds, and the host Tigers (8-2), fresh from a week off, defeated the Paladins (5-3) for the 27th straight time.
Booker hit eight of his first nine shots, and Clemson led 43-26 at the break.
The Paladins, from the Southern Conference, last beat Clemson on Jan. 25, 1978, when they were in the midst of six NCAA Tournament appearances from 1971 to 1980.
Booker's younger brother Devin, a freshman, had a career-best 11 points for Clemson.
