WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser sent starting forward Vytas Danelius to the locker room with 16 minutes left in the game, angered at some undisclosed transgression.
Then, after it was over, Prosser kept Danelius and his teammates behind closed doors for a 30-minute tongue-lashing. Rarely has an 18-point victory felt so bad.
Chris Paul had 14 points and a career-high 11 assists and Kyle Visser added 13 points, helping No. 6 Wake Forest hold off Elon 85-67 on Wednesday night.
"Rather than talk about what we didn't do, Elon deserves credit," Prosser said. "I thought the Elon kids played really, really hard. I thought they took it to us the whole game."
The Demon Deacons (8-1) played sloppily in this game, trailing about 4 minutes into the second half. But Justin Gray made a 3-pointer, Trent Strickland followed with two free throws and the defensively challenged Demon Deacons actually showed some bite.
Still, the Phoenix hung in, getting within eight points on a layup by Chris Chalko with about eight minutes left. The Deacons finally sealed it with seven straight points, including a basket by Visser that gave Paul his final assist.
Chalko had 16 points and Scottie Rice added 15 for Elon, which has lost seven of eight.
"There is no such thing as a moral victory," Elon coach Ernie Nestor said. "The best thing you do in a season cannot be a loss, you must win games. But we're not going away from tonight feeling that this was a total wasted effort."
Wake Forest continually pounded the ball inside and outscored Elon 48-22 in the paint, with Visser leading the way.
Elon took its final lead at 47-46 after Jamaal Levy was called for a technical foul. Seconds earlier, he chased Harris to halfcourt and thought he had forced a backcourt violation. He demonstratively gestured to referee Karl Hess when it wasn't called.
Later, Levy reached around Harris to try for a steal and Hess quickly whistled a foul. When Levy again disagreed, Hess gave him the technical.
In the first half, Gray and Elon's Steve Harvin were given technicals after trading shoves in a scrum going after a loose ball.
The Phoenix announced earlier Wednesday that leading scorer Jackson Atoyebi would miss the rest of the season because of a shoulder injury suffered last month. He is scheduled to have surgery in early January.
Elon returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 18 when it returns a game at Weber State in a 9:05 p.m. game. The Deacons return to action on Saturday, Dec. 18, hosting Texas in a 2:00 p.m. matchup.
Game Box Score
–ELON–
