Wake Forest gets an opportunity to record an Atlantic Coast Conference first — a road sweep of the league’s new California schools — when it travels to Berkeley to take on Cal on Saturday afternoon.
The Demon Deacons (17-6, 9-3) became the first ACC team to win a conference game at Stanford when they rode Cameron Hildreth’s 22 points and a strong defensive effort on Cardinal star Maxime Raynaud to a 79-73 triumph Wednesday night.
On the other side of the San Francisco Bay, Cal (12-11, 5-7) welcomed back star Andrej Stojakovic from a hip injury in a 74-62 victory over North Carolina State.
The Golden Bears already have lost three ACC games at home — to Stanford, Virginia Tech and Syracuse.
Cal responded to a players-only meeting with one of its best team efforts of the season in the win over NC State. The Golden Bears totaled 16 assists on 27 baskets against the Wolfpack after having had just four on 18 buckets in their previous game against Syracuse.
“It went from a famine to a feast,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said. “There was a lot of emotion behind that because after the Syracuse game, our guys were upset (and) the staff was upset because the ball wasn’t moving.”
Stojakovic, who had missed the previous four games, had two of the assists as well as six points (2-for-12 shooting), four rebounds and a block in 25 minutes off the bench.
The Stanford transfer can expect a lot of attention from the Wake Forest defense, which took Raynaud out of his game Wednesday, forcing him into taking seven 3-point attempts among his 11 total shots.
“That was our best road win of the year,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “We did a good job on Raynaud. We mixed it up with the double team, and it got to the point where he played point guard more than he did in the post.”
Stojakovic had scored 23 and 24 points in Cal’s previous two home games before his return off the bench on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media
