More From Syracuse | More From Wake Forest | Highlights | Bracket | Quotes | Box Score | Game Graphic
New York (AP) -- Freshman forward Marek Dolezaj scored a career-high 20 points as Syracuse beat Wake Forest 73-64 on Tuesday night.
Tyus Battle had 18 points and Paschal Chukwu added 14 points and nine rebounds as all five starters scored in double figures for the 11th-seeded Orange (20-12).
Next up, the Orange play Wednesday night against 12th-ranked and sixth-seeded North Carolina, the defending national champion.
Bryant Crawford scored 22 points for No. 14 seed Wake Forest (11-20), which lost its final three games of the season and seven of its last nine. Normally dangerous from long range, the Demon Deacons finished 6 for 29 (20.7 percent) on 3-pointers.
Playing in its home state, Syracuse had the benefit of partisan support on a neutral court, with many of the chanting fans in a crowd of 10,612 decked out in orange.
Frank Howard had 11 points, five rebounds and five assists for Syracuse, which was coming off a 55-52 win Saturday at home against then-No. 18 Clemson that snapped a three-game skid. Oshae Brissett added 10 points, on 2-of-11 shooting, and nine rebounds.
Needing a win and knowing he has a thin roster, Orange coach Jim Boeheim didn't make a second-half substitution until Battle fouled out with 32.8 seconds to go.
Wake Forest was down 19 with under eight minutes remaining but shaved the deficit to six on two free throws by Brandon Childress with 1:24 left. Dolezaj tossed an alley-oop to the 7-foot-2 Chukwu for his second consecutive dunk and his blocked shot at the other end led to two foul shots by Brissett that made it 68-58 with 1:04 remaining.
Dolezaj scored Syracuse's first five points after halftime and a 3 by Howard started an 11-0 run that gave the Orange their biggest lead, 56-37, on Chukwu's layup off a feed from Battle with 8:12 remaining.
Wake Forest went scoreless for 6:26 and never fully recovered.
Syracuse's signature 2-3 zone defense confounded the Demon Deacons early on. They committed six turnovers in the first 8:41 and failed to score for nearly five minutes as Battle keyed an 11-0 spurt with seven points to give the Orange a 20-4 advantage less than nine minutes in.
But the Demon Deacons found their footing for a while behind Crawford and 7-foot-1 Doral Moore. The team missed its first seven 3-point attempts before Mitchell Wilbekin connected on a long one to cap a 9-0 surge that trimmed it to 26-22 with 4:19 remaining in the first half.
Despite going 2 of 11 from 3-point range, Syracuse headed into halftime leading 30-24 behind 12 points from Battle.
Wake Forest, which ranked third in the ACC in 3-point shooting at 38.2 percent, was 1 for 13 from beyond the arc in the first half and went to the free-throw line only once.
#ACCTourney Notes
Syracuse (20-12) advances to Wednesday’s 9 p.m. second-round game against No. 6 seed North Carolina (22-9) … The game will be played two weeks to the day of the regular-season meeting between the teams, which saw the Tar Heels escape the Carrier Dome with a 78-74 victory.
Syracuse improved to 7-1 in its all-time series with Wake Forest, including two wins in the teams’ three meetings this season.
Wake Forest slipped to 44-61 all-time in the New York Life ACC Tournament, 0-1 as a No. 14 seed.
The No. 11 seed is now 3-2 all-time versus the No. 14 seed in the ACC Tournament.
Orange freshman Marek Dolezaj delivered a career high 20 points for his fifth double-digit scoring game of the season … Dolezaj surpassed his previous collegiate high scoring game of 12 points, which he registered in Syracuse’s home court win over Boston College on Jan. 24.
Syracuse sophomore Tyus Battle, who entered the night as one of three ACC players averaging 20-or-more points per game, got off to another fast start out of the gate with 12 points in the first 11 minutes … Battle connected on four of his first five shots from the floor, including one 3-pointer … He finished with 18 points and joined Dolezaj to lead five Orange in double figures.
The Orange went 12-for-18 from the floor in the second half to close out shooting .667 for the game … Junior center Paschal Chukwu keyed a closing flurry with a pair of emphatic dunks and matched Dolezaj’s 6-for-7 evening.
Syracuse junior Frank Howard (11 points) reached double figures in scoring for the 29th time in 32 games this season … Howard also contributed five rebounds and five assists while registering three steals to up his ACC-leading total for the season to 59.
With his game-high 22 points, Wake Forest junior Bryant Crawford hit double-digits in scoring for the 30th time in 32 games this season … Crawford, the ACC’s active career leader in assists, dished out six more on Tuesday night to give him 467 total as a Demon Deacon.