Wake beats Pack in ACC opener

Winston-Salem -- WINSTON-SALEM -- The missed free throws, 3-pointers and turnovers piled up on both sides of Sunday's ACC opener between Wake Forest and N.C. State.

Wake Forest's best player, Al-Farouq Aminu, nearly had a triple-double the hard way with seven turnovers.

The Demon Deacons' sloppy 67-59 win over the Wolfpack inspired coach Dino Gaudio to call his own team ugly.

"We won ugly and we're an ugly team," Gaudio said he told his team after the game.

Which prompted Aminu, who finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds, to remark, "We're a reflection of our coach."

Wake (8-2) was able to joke after its third straight win in an ACC opener under Gaudio. The Wolfpack, which is winless in four conference openers under Sidney Lowe, was in no such jovial mood.

Lowe questioned his team's intensity and his star player, Tracy Smith, questioned the officials after he fouled out.

"We've got a long way to go," Lowe said. "We've got to increase our intensity and our knowledge. I don't think we played smart tonight."

The Deacs did enough to turn State's biggest mistakes into transition dunks. Aminu and Ish Smith (10 points) combined on a second-half alley-oop which capped a mini 6-0 run which turned the game in Wake's favor for good.

Smith, the 6-foot point guard, blocked a shot by Dennis Horner, a 6-9 forward, to start a fastbreak. Aminu ran with Smith, who fed him at the rim for a flush a 48-38 advantage at 12:06 in the second half.

The Wolfpack, which had cut an nine-point halftime deficit to 42-38 at 14:31 in the second half on Dennis Horner's 3-pointer, couldn't get back into the game or really establish any kind of rhythm during the course of the game. Tracy Smith was parked on the bench for the final 9:49 of the first half with two fouls and then fouled out with 5:28 left in the game, and State down 56-44. Smith finished with a 11 points in a season-low 23 minutes.

Tracy Smith said there were too many touch fouls and that the officiating crew of Karl Hess, Joe Lindsay and Sean Hull "favored" Wake Forest. State was called for 25 fouls, compared to 17 for Wake, while the free throws were 23 to 19 in Wake's favor.

"The refs, I don't think they did a good job tonight," Smith said. "I think they favored Wake Forest all the way but that's ACC basketball. You've to play through that."

Asked to elaborate, Smith said: "I felt like there was too many touch fouls. It's a man's game, I mean there's going to be touching and hitting, you can't call every little touch foul."

Without Smith's post presence, State resorted to a 3-point barrage which resulted in a 6-of-21 performance. Guard Javier Gonzalez hit three 3s and led the Wolfpack with 18 points but he had little help.

Meanwhile, the Deacs were going high-percentage with at least 10 of its 26 field goals came on dunks. Senior forward David Weaver had the highlight of the first half, a reverse jam off a missed 3-pointer by Ari Stewart.

Aminu added an array of dunks in transition, mostly fed by Smith (seven assists). Without a pair of first-round picks, guard Jeff Teague and forward James Johnson, who helped Wake win 11 ACC games last year and return to the NCAA Tournament after a three-year absence, the Deacs have leaned on Aminu, a sophomore who leads the team in scoring and rebounding.

"When he takes off on the break ... wow," Gaudio gushed.

Neither team was particularly sharp in the rare pre-Christmas ACC game. They combined to shoot 9 of 32 from 3, a staggering 23 of 42 from the free-throw line and 32 turnovers.

Gaudio admitted there were several flaws in Sunday's win but offered no apologies for the lack of artistic quality.

"We're 1-0 sitting at the top of the ACC," Gaudio said. "We'll take that."