Wake's Gray drops career-best 37 to beat Badgers
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Justin Gray scored a career-high 37 points, including six free throws in the final 28 seconds, to lead Wake Forest (No. 23 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) past Wisconsin 91-88 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Tuesday night.
Kyle Visser added all of his 13 points and five assists after halftime for the Demon Deacons (6-1), who led by 10 in the second half but had to hold on for their 21st straight home win.
Wake Forest has won 51 of 52 home games against non-conference opponents, and improved to 3-0 against the Badgers in the seventh annual event.
Alando Tucker scored 23 of his 27 points in the second half for the Badgers (4-1), while Brian Butch added 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Kammron Taylor's 3-pointer pulled Wisconsin to 89-88. Gray then made his final two free throws, and Taylor missed a long 3 at the buzzer that would have tied it.
Gray was unstoppable all night, hitting 11 of 20 shots and knocking down all 13 free throws in 37 minutes. The senior got some big help from Visser, a 6-foot-11 junior who turned in a strong second half with Eric Williams picking up his fourth foul soon after the break.
Meanwhile, Tucker scored only four points and sustained an apparent injury to his nose in the first half. He came out of the break wearing a protective mask, but soon took it off and showed no ill effects in leading the Badgers back in a game that came down to the final play.
Wisconsin fought back to take a 62-60 lead on a pair of free throws by Jason Chappell with 9:21 left. Williams answered with a turnaround shot to tie it, and Visser followed with six straight points. That was not a problem against the Badgers, who had no one to slow the two-time All-ACC performer. Gray went 7-for-14 from the field in the first half and hit a pair of 3-pointers in 19 minutes.
After hitting two free throws, Visser put the Demon Deacons ahead to stay, scoring on a reverse-layup putback of Gray's miss and making a layup off a feed from Gray on consecutive possessions for a 68-64 lead with 7:52 left.
Wake Forest pushed the margin to 79-70 on free throws from Trent Strickland with 3:54 left and appeared to have the game in hand. But the Badgers kept pushing the ball upcourt and scoring at the other end, clawing to 83-80 on a score from Tucker with 41.5 seconds left.
The Demon Deacons went 8-for-8 at the line in the final 28 seconds to seal it, with Gray hitting six of those. They ultimately needed every one of those points, with the Badgers getting a double-pump 3-pointer from Tucker and a long 3 from Taylor to get as close as 89-88 with 5 seconds left.
Gray then hit two more free throws, and Taylor's long 3 at the horn bounced off the rim.
The Demon Deacons got off to a quick start behind Gray's big first half. He had struggled in stints at point guard as Wake Forest tried to replace All-American Chris Paul, committing too many turnovers and at times sacrificing too many of his own shots for a team that needs his offense.
That was not a problem against the Badgers, who had no one to slow the two-time All-ACC performer. Gray went 7-for-14 from the field in the first half and hit a pair of 3-pointers in 19 minutes.
Wake Forest led 37-32 at the break.
