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WINSTON-SALEM — Ish Smith waited ... and waited ... and waited.

With the shot clock winding down and the score tied at 83 in overtime, Wake Forest had the basketball exactly where it wanted: in the hands of its senior point guard.

With five ticks left, Smith drove to the basket and scored over Maryland's Eric Hayes with 19.8 seconds left, the final points in the Demon Deacons' 85-83 ACC victory over the Terrapins at the Joel Coliseum on Tuesday night.

"Ish makes big shots," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. " ... I don't care what the stat sheet says, at the end of the game I want the ball in his hands."

Al-Farouq Aminu scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (12-3, 2-1 ACC), whose last three home games have gone into overtime. They've won them all.

"We're a resilient group," said Smith, who finished with 16 points, eight assists and just one turnover. "If we have to play our next 13 ACC games in overtime, we'll do it if that's what it takes to win them."

Greivis Vasquez scored 30 points to lead Maryland (10-5, 1-1), which scored on its final seven possessions in regulation to force overtime. Vasquez, Hayes and Landon Milbourne hit 3-pointers during an 88-second span late in regulation that gave the Terps their first lead since the first half.

Maryland's surge erased an eight-point Wake lead.

"We didn't shoot the ball as well as we've been shooting the ball," Terps coach Gary Williams said. "I'm not sure how much of that was Wake's defense and how much was our shooting."

Poor shooting or not, Maryland led 76-74 when Aminu drew a foul shooting a 3-pointer with 29.3 seconds left in regulation time. Aminu, who shot 10-for-12 from the foul line, missed the first free throw but made the next two to tie it.

Wake's defense held, and the game went to overtime.

Freshman Ari Stewart, who was 0-for-5 from the floor and had no points through 40 minutes, hit two of the three biggest shots in overtime.

First, Stewart faked a 3-pointer to coax his defender to jump, stepping in and hitting an open jump shot with 3:13 left to break a 78-78 tie.

Stewart's foul-line jumper on the next possession pushed it to 82-78.

"That cat, he has no conscience," Gaudio said, "and I'm glad. He'll put 'em up. I kid him, but seriously, if he's open I want him to shoot. We couldn't make shots last year, and that was an Achilles' (heel) for us, but these two freshmen, they can make shots. I don't want them thinking. Just shoot the ball."

C.J. Harris, Wake's other key freshman, shot 4-for-6 from 3-point range and finished with 18 points.

But the biggest shot in a game of big shots was Smith's game-winning drive. It capped an 8-for-23 shooting night, 0-for-3 from 3-point range.

"I shot it 23 times. That's way too much for me," Smith said. "My arm's a little sore. I missed so many little chippy shots, Coach kept yelling at me 'Ish, kick it out! Kick it out!' I just couldn't make a pull-up (jump shot) or my little floater. I felt like I had to redeem myself and get a big basket. I appreciate Coach and my teammates trusting in me with the last shot."

Wake got off to a ragged start, committing eight turnovers in the first 11 minutes. With the Deacons unable to hold onto the ball, Maryland built an eight-point lead.

But Wake finished strong, scoring on eight of its last nine possessions. Harris had a layup, a baseline drive and three 3-pointers, and Aminu an alley-oop dunk and two free throws.

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

MARYLAND (10-5) — Milbourne 5-15 0-0 11, Williams 6-8 0-2 12, Hayes 3-4 0-0 8, Mosley 3-8 2-2 8, Vasquez 9-27 8-11 30, Bowie 2-3 5-6 10, Tucker 0-1 2-2 2, Gregory 0-2 2-2 2, Padgett 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 28-70 19-25 83.

WAKE FOREST (12-3) — Aminu 7-14 10-12 24, Weaver 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 8-23 0-0 16, Harris 6-9 2-2 18, Williams 2-6 1-2 6, Clark 1-3 3-3 5, McFarland 4-6 0-0 8, Stewart 2-7 0-0 4, Woods 2-2 0-1 4. Totals 32-70 16-20 85.

Halftime—Wake Forest 42-39.
End of regulation—Tied 76.
3-point goals—Maryland 8-18 (Vasquez 4-12, Hayes 2-3, Milbourne 1-1, Bowie 1-1, Mosley 0-1), Wake Forest 5-15 (Harris 4-6, Williams 1-1, Clark 0-1, Aminu 0-2, Stewart 0-2, Smith 0-3).
Fouled out—Gregory, Williams.
Rebounds—Maryland 43 (Mosley 13), Wake Forest 41 (Aminu 13).
Assists—Maryland 18 (Vasquez 7), Wake Forest 12 (Smith 8).
Total fouls—Maryland 20, Wake Forest 21.
A—12,925.