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Aminu, Wake Forest win opener over NC Central

Nov 15, 2008 - 5:52 AM WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The debut for highly touted Wake Forest freshman Al-Farouq Aminu was an impressive one.

A former five-star recruit, Aminu had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 24 Wake Forest to a season-opening win over North Carolina Central, 94-48, on Friday.

James Johnson collected 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (1-0), who defeated their in-state rivals for the second consecutive season. In its inaugural season of Division I competition a year ago, North Carolina Central fell to Wake Forest, 75-58.

"I thought it was a good start to the season for us," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "We did some good things. I think we came out of the gate and held them. We did a nice job of sharing the ball again. We know we are not a great shooting team, 2-for-11 (on 3-pointers) is disappointing. A plus was shooting 75 percent from the free-throw line; we spent a lot of time on that."

Jeff Teague added 14 points and six of the Demon Deacons' 20 assists.

Aminu, who is the star of a stellar freshman class, knocked down 9-of-12 shots in 28 minutes. Fellow newcomer Tony Woods added 12 points on 6-of-7 from the field.

"It is harder," Aminu said of his college debut. "People are stronger and quicker so it's a little bit of an adjustment. Before the game, (Coach) just said run the floor and you'll be able to create an open floor."

The Demon Deacons dominated from the start, jumping out to a 22-5 lead. The Eagles did not make their second field goal until the 4:51 mark of the opening half, a 3-pointer by Jamar Briscoe that made the score 39-11.

"We played great on the defensive end for the first part of the half, but then at the six-minute mark they came out and hit a lot of shots," Teague said. "They hit some open three-pointers. Some were contested, some weren't."

Briscoe led NC Central (0-1) with 18 points on just 6-of-19 shooting.

"We had a lot of inexperienced players," NC Central coach Henry Dickerson said. "You can tell them all you want to tell them. Once you step on that floor it's totally different. I think with the inexperience and not knowing what to expect; they never recovered from that. It would have been very difficult even if we would have made some shots."

NC Central did manage to grab 17 offensive rebounds, but was limited to just 27 percent (16-of-60) shooting from the field.

J'Mell Walters scored 11 points and Vincent Davis added 10 for the Eagles, who were outrebounded, 45-34.