Wake Forest fends off Notre Dame, 66-58

Tyree Appleby produced a game-high 21 points and six assists to pace host Wake Forest to a 66-58 ACC victory over Notre Dame on Saturday night in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Andrew Carr posted 11 points and Bobi Klintman notched a double-double, with 10 points and 12 rebounds, as the Demon Deacons (18-11, 10-8 ACC) won their first game without No. 2 scorer Damari Monsanto. The ACC's leader with 87 3-pointers tore his left patella tendon Wednesday at North Carolina State and underwent season-ending surgery Saturday.

Ven-Allen Lubin scored a career-high 19 points, adding eight rebounds and three blocks for the Fighting Irish (10-19, 2-16), who lost their seventh game in a row.

Notre Dame played without starting guards JJ Starling (11.2 ppg) and Marcus Hammond (8.9 ppg). Starling missed his first game with left knee soreness while Hammond sat out with a sprained toe.

Despite being short-handed, the Irish broke out to a 25-18 lead in the opening 10-plus minutes as they drilled their first four 3-point attempts -- including two by new starter Trey Wertz.

Wake Forest responded with a 14-2 spree triggered by 3-pointers from Appleby and lightly used Lucas Taylor, who had not played since Dec. 14.

Then Appleby fed Matthew Marsh for an alley-oop dunk that became a three-point play and another layup with a foul. Appleby capped the run with another 3-pointer that pushed the Demon Deacons to a 32-27 lead with 5:02 left in the half.

Wake led 39-36 at the half.

The second half started slowly as the teams combined to miss 13 consecutive shots, with Wake Forest holding a 43-40 lead for 4½ minutes.

Appleby finally broke the drought with a reverse layup at the 13:24 mark, then Cameron Hildreth cashed a 3-pointer on Wake Forest's next possession to make it 48-40.

The Fighting Irish wound up scoring just two points in a nine-minute stretch as Wake Forest's lead blossomed to 54-42.

Notre Dame couldn't cut the deficit to single digits until Cormac Ryan's layup with 1:43 left made it 63-54.