Wake Forest Wake Forest/Michigan Michigan Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

O'Kelley scored 11 of his 19 points in the final 11 minutes as No. 12 Wake Forest rallied to beat Michigan 71-60 on Tuesday night in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game.


	Michigan's Avery Queen, top, tangles with Wake Forest's Broderick Hicks over a loose ball.

"We've got a lot of experience, and we know to stay patient and wait for things to come our way," O'Kelley said. "That experience let us hang in there without panicking."

Michigan, with three freshmen and a sophomore in its starting lineup, had an 11-point lead with 16 minutes remaining.

"I think we might have gotten too excited when we got the lead," center Josh Asselin said. "We haven't played on national TV before, and here we were beating the 12th-ranked team in the country. I think we got excited and hurt ourselves."

Michigan (2-2) outrebounded Wake Forest (5-0) 49-33 and only had 13 turnovers, but was 7-of-12 from the line in the second half.

"I'm very disappointed with losing this one," Wolverines coach Brian Ellerbe said. "Wake Forest is a very good team, but we did a lot of things to help them win this one. We got to the line, then didn't cash in. That will always demoralize a team."

Wake Forest, last season's NIT champion, has won 10 straight games, second in the nation to only Michigan State's 14 in a row.

"We're growing as a team, and that showed tonight," Demon Deacons coach Dave Odom said. "This was a game of spurts, but we showed enough experience not to get frustrated when Michigan was on a run. Michigan will learn that. They have as good a young team as anyone I've seen."

Darius Songaila added 13 points for Wake Forest, Antwan Scott had 12 and Josh Shoemaker had 10.

LaVell Blanchard led the Wolverines with 13, and Bernard Robinson Jr. and Josh Asselin each added 12. Blanchard and Robinson, Michigan's biggest scoring threats, were a combined 9-of-32 from the field.

"That's all shot selection," Ellerbe said. "When you take good shots, you make them. When you take bad ones, you don't."

The Wolverines led 32-29 at the half behind 10 points and five rebounds from Blanchard and held the Demon Deacons scoreless for the first four minutes of the second. Asselin and Chris Young scored four points each as Michigan built the lead to 40-29.

Wake Forest, though, answered with a 13-4 run that got them within 44-42 with 12:35 to go. The Demon Deacons took a 47-46 lead on O'Kelley's 3-pointer, and led 53-48 with 8:30 left.

Michigan didn't help its chances by missing four straight free throws, including the front end of two 1-and-1s. That helped Wake Forest go on a 9-2 run, making it 62-53.

Asselin's basket got the Wolverines within seven with 4:20 left, but Michigan didn't score again for nearly three minutes, allowing Wake Forest to put the game away.

"It was a tough game, but we knew we could win it," Shoemaker said. "We've come from behind, so we knew we could do it again."

The game kicked off the second-annual Challenge, a series of nine games played Tuesday and Wednesday between teams from the conferences. The conference that wins the most games will win the Commissioner's Cup. In 1999, the ACC won 5-4.

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AUDIO/VIDEO
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Broderick Hicks draws the foul and gets the bucket to fall.
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Michigan's Josh Moore grabs his missed shot and slams it home.
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Michigan's LaVell Blanchard drains the shot in the key.
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Chris Young takes it to the Demon Deacon defense.
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Robert O'Kelley says rebounding made the difference in Wake Forest's win over Michigan.
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