No. 2 Wake Forest holds off Boston College 83-63

[January 15, 2009]  BOSTON (AP) -- Jeff Teague scored 29 points and Al-Farouq Aminu had 15 with eight rebounds on Wednesday night as No. 2 Wake Forest followed an emotional victory over North Carolina with an easy, 83-63 win against Boston College, the only other team to beat the Tar Heels.

Wake Forest (15-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) tied the best start in school history, matching a record set 82 years ago by the 1926-27 team.

Tyrese Rice scored 20 points for Boston College (13-5, 1-2), which has lost three in a row -- all at home and one to Harvard -- since its shocking defeat of then-No. 1 and unbeaten North Carolina on Jan. 4.

Joe Trapani had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Eagles, who trailed by 25 points early in the second half before cutting the deficit to 64-55 on Rice's 3-pointer with 8:06 left. But James Johnson scored two baskets and Teague scored on a fast break and BC never came within 10 points again.

Teague had a career-high 34 points to help the Demon Deacons beat North Carolina on Sunday and elevate Wake Forest to its highest ranking since Chris Paul had them at No. 2 early in the 2004-05 season. Wednesday's win was also a milestone: It was the 100th career win for coach Dino Gaudio, and the first-ever for the Demon Deacons against Boston College.

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Wake dominated BC in the first half, shooting 65 percent and forcing 12 turnovers to take a 47-27 lead. But BC didn't back down: The 6-foot-1 Rice and had to be separated from 7-footer Chas McFarland after a loose ball scramble midway through the second half.

Frank Spaziani, the longtime assistant football coach who was promoted to the top job at Boston College on Tuesday, was given a raucous ovation when he was introduced during a first-half timeout. After thanking the fans, he told them to show the same enthusiasm for the basketball team, which trailed 38-22 at the time.

But his encouragement fell flat, as Wake scored the next seven points in 37 seconds thanks to two steals that led to breakaways. In all, Wake scored 19 of the last 26 points of the first half, and the first five of the second while BC missed one layup and had the next three shots blocked.

Teague went 10 minutes without scoring before going the length of the court for a fastbreak layup that made it 70-56.

[Associated Press; By JIMMY GOLEN]

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