Wake Forest uses roaring start to club Georgia Tech

Cameron Hildreth led six scorers in double figures with 17 points and Wake Forest held Georgia Tech without a field goal for nearly 15 minutes in the first half en route to an 80-51 win in Atlanta on Tuesday night.

It was only the second conference road win of the season for Wake Forest (15-7, 7-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), which built on the momentum created in Saturday's 99-70 victory over Syracuse. Georgia Tech (10-13, 3-9) has lost two straight and five of its past six.

The Demon Deacons delivered an early haymaker by scoring 23 consecutive points in the first half. After Georgia Tech's Kowacie Reeves Jr. made a corner 3-pointer at the 19:01 mark, the Yellow Jackets went ice cold and missed their next 22 field-goal attempts.

Georgia Tech didn't score again until there was 10:16 left in the half, getting two free throws from Ibrahima Sacko. The Yellow Jackets didn't get their second field goal until Tyzhaun Claude's putback with 4:10 to go. By that time, Wake Forest had a 35-11 lead, and it nursed it to 46-20 at halftime.

Wake Forest outscored Georgia Tech 9-3 to open the second half and push its lead to 32 points. The Yellow Jackets never got closer than 28 the rest of the game.

Hildreth was 5-for-8 from the field and 7-for-7 at the foul line. Andrew Carr had 13 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season. Kevin Miller scored 13 points, Damari Monsanto had 11 and Hunter Sallis and Efton Reid each finished with 10.

Georgia Tech was led by Baye Ndongo with 14 points and six rebounds, while Naithan George added 12 points and seven assists. Miles Kelly, who entered Tuesday averaging a team-leading 14.5 points per game, was 0-for-5 from the field and failed to score.