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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Dave Odom doesn't believe No. 6 Wake
Forest has to start dealing with the stress of success just yet.
"Let's not get carried away with nine wins. Nine wins is not
what this season is all about," the coach of the Demon Deacons
said following a 92-52 victory over Radford on Monday night.
"Let's focus more on our opportunity to improve and how we
improve.
|  | | Antwan Scott is a dunking Demon Deacon, and Radford's Nosa Obasul can do nothing but watch. |
"I promise you I've never seen a tape yet where a team of mine
played a perfect game. We can always teach as we go along."
Josh Howard had a career-high 22 points and Wake Forest kept its
defensive streak alive in the 40-point victory.
The Demon Deacons (9-0) held their 16th straight opponent under
40 percent shooting to win their 14th straight dating to last
season's NIT championship run -- the second-longest winning streak
in the country. Michigan State has won 19 in a row.
Howard, who also had five steals, was 7-for-11 from the field
and 6-for-7 from the foul line as Wake Forest scored 52 second-half
points.
Darius Songaila added a season-high 18 points and Craig Dawson
16 for the Demon Deacons. Dawson, the team's leading scorer at 15
points a game, rebounded from a 1-for-7 shooting game Saturday
night to go 6-for-7.
"Everybody is on the same page right now," Dawson said.
"Nobody is trying to take on the game one-on-one. We're just
finding the open man and knocking down the shots."
Howard's previous high was 21 two games ago in a 31-point
victory over Kansas.
"This is a team that is working hard," Odom said. "With each
game they get older and they get wiser and they come closer
together and they become more confident."
The Highlanders (4-5), playing for the first time in 10 days,
saw their three-game winning streak end, shooting 37 percent, going
3-for-25 from 3-point range and turning it over 26 times.
"Three-for-25, that's below cold," Radford coach Ron Bradley
said. "They are so much more athletic and quicker than us around
the perimeter."
Audrey Savtchenko led Radford with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Wake Forest's winning streak is also the best in Odom's 12
years with the program. The 1996-97 team, led by Tim Duncan, won
its first 13 games of the season.
"I've had just absolutely enormous help," Odom said. "My name
happens to sit there behind the head coach, but I can tell you it
is a Wake Forest win streak, it's a player win streak, it's a staff
win streak, it's not mine. I am not foolish to believe it's going
on forever."
Wake Forest led by 10 early in the second half before going on a
19-5 run as six different players scored. Dawson's 3-pointer with
13:47 left pushed the score to 59-35 and Radford never got closer.
"In the second half they took everything away that we could
do," Bradley said. "It was just everything that went wrong. I
don't think we maintained our defensive intensity and they picked
theirs up."
Radford missed its first 11 3-pointers, but trimmed a 17-point
first-half deficit to eight and had the ball with less than a
minute left in the half. Williams then lost it to Howard, who hit
two free throws and made a fastbreak layup in the final 34 seconds
as Wake Forest went up 12 at the break.
The Demon Deacons started slow against Radford's full-court
press, turning it over on their first three possessions. But the
Highlanders went cold from the field and Wake Forest used a 27-6
run to take control of the game.
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ALSO SEE
Men's College Basketball Scoreboard
Radford Clubhouse
Wake Forest Clubhouse
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