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This is why he came here.
Tyree Appleby scored 32 points - 20 of which came in the second half - in Wake Forest's 78-75 win over Wisconsin in Madison Tuesday night.
"The coaches kept calling plays and I just kept making the right reads," Appleby said after the game.
"Incredible resiliency by Ty Appleby," Wake head coach Steve Forbes added. "He had a heck of a game."
Appleby was incredibly efficient with his scoring as well. He was 11-16 from the field, 4-6 from deep and 6-6 from the free-throw line. He only missed one shot in the second half.
"Credit to Wake Forest," Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. "They took advantage of every mistake we made. Steve's got a good team. He's done a good job with them. They've got some nice pieces."
After jumping out to a nice start, Wake Forest was in control for most of the first half. The Deacs connected on nine of their first ten field goal attempts. The Kohl Center crowd got into the game in the second half, and Wisconsin used a 19-7 run to take a 57-52 lead leading into the under-eight timeout.
Appleby was dynamic all night long off the dribble, getting to the basket constantly and causing fits for this elite Badger defense. The Florida transfer took over during a key part of the second half. From 7:35 to 5:00 remaining in the game, he drilled three shots from behind the arc.
The most impressive one was the last, as Appleby crossed up his defender -Wisconsin big man Stephen Crowl - which created enough space to take advantage of the mismatch and knock down the triple.
"You have to play with some swag," Forbes said. "Especially on the road."
Appleby sure played with some swagger Tuesday night. He was talking, smiling and celebrating all game long. This was Appleby's highest-scoring game since he went for 33 in Cleveland State's 83-76 loss to Milwaukee, back on Jan. 3, 2019.
Appleby was the star Tuesday night, but this truly was a team win. Cam Hildreth continued his strong play as of late, with 15 points and seven rebounds. Down one with 34 seconds remaining, Hildreth took his man on a one-on-one and got an eight-footer to drop to take the lead.
Damari Monsanto added 13 points in a season high 33 minutes of action. He was cold shooting the ball in the first half (2-7 FGs, 1-5 3FGs), but connected on some huge buckets down the stretch, and played great defense throughout. Down four with just over three minutes remaining, Monsanto drilled a three-ball to cut it to one. And with 1:37 remaining, Wake let Damari go to work one-on-one, and he drilled a turnaround jumper from the right elbow to take a 72-71 lead. Wake hadn't held the lead in over seven minutes of game action.
Chucky Hepburn led the way for Wisconsin with 23 points. He connected on six of 12 three-pointers, one of which was a prayer from half court as the first half buzzer sounded.
Matthew Marsh played some of the best minutes in his Wake collegiate career in the win. He posted a near double-double with eight points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes of floor time. He was relentless on the glass, slammed home all four of his field goal attempts and locked up Wisconsin's best player, Tyler Wahl, on key possessions. His minutes were even more important with the foul trouble of Andrew Carr and Davion Bradford, who both had four early on in the second half.
"We had great balance again tonight," Forbes said. "It took everybody. That's who we are and that's the way it's going to be for the rest of the year.
Wisconsin hadn't given up more than 33 points in a half through their first six games this season. Wake Forest scored 37 in the first half, and broke their own record with 41 in the second.
"Defensively, there were a lot of uncharacteristic things that we had not done this year," Gard said.
Wake Forest moves to 7-1 on the season. Wisconsin falls to 5-2. Next up for the Demon Deacons is their ACC opener, a road matchup with 6-2 Clemson.
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