news-record.com

WINSTON SALEM -- The fans, no doubt, will want to talk about all those points on the scoreboard.

But coaches being coaches, most of the talk after Sunday night's game at a sold-out Joel Coliseum was about defense.

Oh sure, Jeff Teague scored a career-high 34 points to lead No. 4 Wake Forest (14-0, 1-0 ACC) to a 92-89 victory over No. 3 North Carolina (14-2, 0-2). And the Demon Deacons' sophomore point guard did indeed put up some gaudy shooting numbers: 13-for-15 from the foul line and 3-for-4 from 3-point range.

But on this night, two teams that like to run and run and run some more combined for just 13 fast-break points.

"We spent a lot of time on conversion defense (in practice)," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "That wasn't a good part of our game last year. You can't keep taking arrows in the back. It's hard to guard when you're retreating."

The Deacons -- off to their best start since the 1980-81 season -- didn't retreat Sunday; they attacked. They held the Tar Heels to two buckets in transition, and a parade of big bodies limited consensus All-American Tyler Hansbrough to 17 points on 3-for-12 shooting.

"Nine assists and 18 turnovers?" North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "That's just not the way we need to play."

North Carolina now falls to 0-2 in the ACC for the first time since 1996-97. That year, the Heels started 0-3 and still reached the Final Four.

"We're 0-2 and we've got to try to play better and be more effective," Williams said. "I'm still looking at the big picture. &ellipses; It's not over after two games."

Danny Green led the Tar Heels with 22 points, and Wayne Ellington had 17. But North Carolina shot just 35 percent from the floor and hit just 11 of 39 second-half shots.

"Field goal percentages defensively was the key (stat)," Gaudio said.

That, and that Teague kid, too.

Carolina couldn't keep the lightning quick guard out of the lane, and he scored 20 of his points in the second half.

"I told Jeff Teague," Williams said, "that's about as good a performance as I've seen against a team of mine in a long time."

Chas McFarland, Wake's 7-foot junior center, finished with 20 points and nine rebounds for the Deacs. James Johnson and Al-Farouq Aminu both fouled out late in the second half, but not before scoring nine points apiece.

The first half played out according to script: seven ties, six lead-changes and a 44-44 tie.

Teague scored 14 points to lead Wake, and his free throws with 9:55 left gave the Deacs a 25-16 lead -- the biggest of the game.

Hansbrough and Green had 13 points apiece for the Heels and were a combined 11-for-11 from the foul line.

NOTES: Both teams came into Sunday night's matchup off streak-busting victories. Last time out, Wake scored eight straight points in the final two minutes to beat BYU 94-87 in Provo, Utah, snapping the nation's longest home winning streak at 53. Carolina, meanwhile, beat College of Charleston 108-70 and became the first team to score 100 points against the Cougars since 1977, a string of 951 games and the second-longest in the nation.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

NORTH CAROLINA (14-2, 0-2)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Green 33 6-9 7-10 5-6 1 5 22

Thompson 21 3-13 2-4 3-8 0 4 8

Hansbrough 35 3-12 11-13 3-11 2 4 17

Lawson 34 4-12 1-1 1-6 5 3 9

Ellington 31 4-13 7-7 3-5 1 3 17

Frasor 8 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 2

Drew II 6 1-3 2-2 0-2 0 0 4

Graves 12 2-5 1-1 1-2 0 4 6

Davis 20 2-4 0-0 1-6 0 4 4

Totals 200 26-74 31-38 21-51 9 28 89

Percentages: FG .351, FT .816. 3-point goals: 6-23, .261 (Green 3-4, Ellington 2-7, Graves 1-3, Drew II 0-1, Hansbrough 0-2, Frasor 0-2, Lawson 0-4). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 8 (Davis 3, Hansbrough, Lawson, Thompson, Green, Graves). Turnovers: 18 (Lawson 4, Drew II 4, Green 3, Ellington 3, Graves 2, Thompson, Hansbrough). Steals: 6 (Green 5, Lawson).

WAKE FOREST (14-0, 1-0)

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts

Aminu 30 3-8 3-6 1-6 4 5 9

Johnson 20 4-8 0-0 1-5 0 5 9

McFarland 33 7-10 6-9 5-9 2 4 20

Teague 39 9-17 13-15 0-6 4 1 34

Williams 25 1-3 2-4 0-1 1 4 4

Clark 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Hale 13 2-6 0-0 0-0 0 1 6

Smith 24 1-5 2-2 0-5 1 2 4

Weaver 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Woods 10 2-3 2-3 1-3 1 3 6

Totals 200 29-61 28-39 8-37 13 27 92

Percentages: FG .475, FT .718. 3-point goals: 6-14, .429 (Teague 3-4, Hale 2-5, Johnson 1-2, Aminu 0-1, Williams 0-1, Clark 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 7 (Aminu 3, McFarland 2, Johnson 2). Turnovers: 16 (Johnson 3, Teague 3, Aminu 2, McFarland 2, Smith 2, Hale 2, Woods, Williams). Steals: 8 (Hale 3, McFarland 2, Teague, Aminu, Williams).

North Carolina 44 45 -- 89

Wake Forest 44 48 -- 92

Officials--Karl Hess, Bernard Clinton, Jamie Luckie. A--14,714.