Wake Forest cost itself some margin for error in blowing Wednesday night’s game at home to Florida State and coach Steve Forbes said afterward the Deacons would have to find a way to make up for it.

They did just that three days later.

The Deacons went on the road and won 77-66 at SMU on Saturday night, moving back into fourth place in the ACC standings and scoring what stands as their second Quad-1 win of the season, per the NET rankings.

“That was a really good win for our team. We played a team that’s been playing really well recently,” Forbes said via news release. “SMU has won eight of their last nine games, including five games in a row. We knew it was going to be a really hard game coming in here.

“We had some adversity on Wednesday where we didn’t finish and I thought that our team really bounced back with great resiliency today.”

Wake Forest (19-7, 11-4 ACC) trailed by two at halftime but was never behind after the first possession of the second half. Tre’Von Spillers opened that half with a bucket to tie the game, the start of a 10-2 run coming out of halftime.

The Deacons shot 50% (14-for-28) in the second half and separation was created because on the defensive end, SMU (19-6, 10-4) went nearly nine minutes without a field goal.

Granted, the Mustangs had eight free throws in between BJ Edwards’ layup with 11:57 left and Matt Cross’ 3-pointer at the 3:03 mark. But Wake Forest suffocated SMU on the defensive end and scored 18 points across that stretch.

Wake’s lead was 17 with 4:19 left and an 8-0 run made things a little more interesting in the final minutes. But a reverse layup from Efton Reid III, two free throws by Hunter Sallis and a game-sealing dunk by Juke Harris sealed the win.

Sallis led Wake Forest with 20 points but wasn’t so much the individual story of the game.

That goes to Parker Friedrichsen, Wake’s sharpshooter who has been mired in a nearly season-long slump. He scored 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting and buried five 3-pointers.

The sophomore had scored 16 points in 11 games since the calendar turned to 2025; he had made five 3s total in Wake’s last 14 games.

That scoring bump was particularly useful given Cameron Hildreth missed the game with a foot injury. Harris, a freshman, started for the first time in his career and had nine points and five rebounds.

Point guard Ty-Laur Johnson bounced back from a scoreless game and his ill-advised 3-pointer in the waning seconds against FSU with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting, adding a 4-for-5 clip at the free-throw line. He had two assists and one turnover.

Reid added 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, winning the battle inside against SMU freshman Samet Yiğitoğlu — he had four points, four fouls, two turnovers and one rebound.

Missing Hildreth wound up being kind of a wash, as SMU was without former Deacon Boopie Miller because of a foot injury.