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WINSTON-SALEM -- As Scott Sutton read over the box score Friday night, he couldn't recall seeing figures like those that jumped off the page in front of him.

He looked at Wake Forest's 20 offensive boards, and its 51 total rebounds from the Demon Deacons' 76-56 season-opening win over Oral Roberts at Joel Coliseum. Then Sutton looked at his own team's 25 rebounds, and the Oral Roberts coach exasperatedly searched for a time when the Golden Eagles had been beaten that soundly.

"That was the difference in the game," Sutton said. "In the past 10 years or so, we've played some really good teams with some really good big guys. But we've never been defeated on the glass like we were tonight."

It made for a resounding victory within Friday's win for Wake Forest, which has placed an extra emphasis on rebounding and defense during the preseason as it searches for new offensive stars to replace their departed leading scorers from last season, Jeff Teague and James Johnson. In fact, the intensity in rebounding drills has grown so hot at times that Deacons guard L.D. Williams described the workouts as a war.

But it paid off in Wake's opener: Six Demon Deacons grabbed four or more rebounds on Friday night, led by Al-Farouq Aminu's 25-point, 13-rebound night. Williams added 10 points and nine boards, and Chas McFarland added 10 points and seven rebounds as Wake Forest scored 17 points off offensive rebounds and took a step toward reaching coach Dino Gaudio's lofty goal of being the nations top rebounding team.

"If you don't rebound, you cant play," said freshman Ari Stewart, who had 11 points and three rebounds in 14 minutes on Friday. "Teams that get the most rebounds win the game. We have to be on the glass. If each of us got three or four rebounds a game, I don't see anyone beating us."

It made an important difference on Friday, largely because inconsistency in Wake's offense helped keep the Demon Deacons from turning the game into a blowout. Wake scored more than one-third of its points (29) off fast-breaks and second-chance baskets fed from its dominant rebounding advantage while its jump shots remained cool.

The Deacs' double-digit lead was mostly built during a seven-minute stretch of the first half when solid defense and explosive execution against Oral Roberts little-used zone defense build the cushion the Deacs nursed for the remainder of the night.

Leading 11-7 with 15:31 remaining in the first half, Wake held Oral Roberts to 3-for-10 from the field over the next eight minutes, forcing two turnovers and blocking a shot to fire a 17-7 run that pushed the Deacs' lead into double digits, a margin they maintained for the remainder of the night.

The stretch also produced some of Wake's most consistent offense, as the Deacs were 8-of-12 from the field against a zone defense Oral Roberts shelved for most of the remainder of the game.

But Wake's inconsistent offense kept it from extending that lead, and the Golden Eagles eventually closed the gap to 63-53 with 5:26 remaining.

But Aminu scored nine unanswered points on a pair of 3-pointers and a conventional 3-point play to push Wake's lead back to 19 points and seal the win.

"He wants to be one of the best players in the country," Williams said. "And tonight he showed why."

ORAL ROBERTS (0-1)

FG FT Reb

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

Morrison 24 1-7 2-4 0-0 4 3 4

Craion 34 6-12 0-0 1-3 1 1 13

Ford 31 9-13 1-5 5-9 2 3 19

Pearson 25 1-6 0-0 2-5 0 4 2

Stokes 26 2-5 0-0 0-1 1 1 5

Rogers 12 0-4 0-0 0-1 1 1 0

Holdman 10 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 2 0

Niles 25 4-11 1-2 1-3 2 2 11

Bell-Holter 13 1-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 2

Totals 200 24-62 4-11 10-25 12 19 56

Percentages: FG .387, FT .364. 3-point goals: 4-22, .182 (Niles 2-7, Craion 1-3, Stokes 1-4, Bell-Holter 0-1, Pearson 0-2, Rogers 0-2, Morrison 0-3). Team rebounds: 0. Blocked shots: 1 (Ford). Turnovers: 13 (Morrison 3, Pearson 3, Craion 2, Holdman 2, Niles 2, Ford). Steals: 8 (Stokes 2, Niles 2, Pearson 2, Rogers, Ford).

WAKE FOREST (1-0)

FG FT Reb

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

Aminu 29 8-13 6-7 4-13 1 2 25

Woods 15 0-1 0-1 4-5 0 2 0

McFarland 29 4-7 2-4 4-7 1 3 10

Smith 30 2-12 0-2 1-4 4 1 4

Williams 29 4-10 2-3 4-9 4 2 10

Harris 20 3-3 2-3 0-2 4 2 8

Stewart 14 4-8 1-2 2-3 0 0 11

Tucker 7 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Walker 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Weaver 24 4-5 0-0 1-7 0 2 8

Totals 200 29-60 13-22 20-51 14 14 76

Percentages: FG .483, FT .591. 3-point goals: 5-17, .294 (Aminu 3-5, Stewart 2-5, McFarland 0-1, Tucker 0-1, Smith 0-2, Williams 0-3). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 2 (Aminu, Weaver). Turnovers: 18 (Smith 5, Williams 4, McFarland 3, Harris 2, Aminu 2, Woods). Steals: 8 (Williams 3, Smith 2, Woods, Harris, Aminu).

Oral Roberts 23 33 -- 56

Wake Forest 39 37 -- 76

A--9,031. Officials--Gary Maxwell, Ray Natili, Tony Dawkins.