Wake Forest has played half of its ACC schedule and is tied for the most league wins in the conference.

As coach Steve Forbes said after Monday night’s rout of Boston College, it’s halftime in the ACC schedule.

And also as he put it: Nobody is handing the Deacons a midway point trophy.

“I think we’ve got a good team and I think we’ve got good players and they’ve got great chemistry,” Forbes said. “But they don’t hand out any awards, they don’t hand out any banners at halftime.”

The second half of Wake Forest’s ACC slate begins with a Saturday night game in Syracuse – but it won’t begin until after the Deacons have had some much-earned rest.

Two games in 48 hours, first an emotional thrashing of North Carolina and then the blowout of BC, meant Wake Forest was off Tuesday and had a light day Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a good week, we need it,” Forbes said of the couple of days for his team to catch its breath. “That was the hard part about losing the Boston College game (in December), we should’ve had a whole week off.”

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Here’s what to know ahead of Saturday night’s game:

Time: 8 p.m.

TV: ACC Network

Announcers: Wes Durham (play-by-play) and Dan Bonner (analyst).

Series; last meeting: Syracuse leads 9-2; Wake Forest won 77-74 in OT on Jan. 8.

Records: Wake Forest 17-4, 7-3 ACC; Syracuse 9-11, 3-6.

Stat to watch: Wake Forest’s 3-pointers.

The first meeting between these teams was only the second time this season that Wake Forest took more 3-pointers than 2-pointers – and the other was against N.C. A&T, with the Deacons making 16 of 35.

The Deacons were 11-for-37 from long range in that Jan. 8 game, and were 14 of 21 from inside the arc.

Obviously, Syracuse’s 2-3 zone has a lot to do with its opponents’ shot selection. The Orange can pack it in and if you can’t get an entry pass to the high post, you’re left throwing it around the perimeter looking for a zone-buster.

In the past few weeks, though, Wake Forest has shown that its offense operates best when playing from the inside out. Against North Carolina (22 of 33) and Boston College (21 of 34), the Deacons made more than 60% of their shots from inside the arc.

The other key here is the foul situation for Syracuse center Jesse Edwards. He fouled out against the Deacons with 9 minutes left, which opened up the middle of the zone. That’s not been uncommon for Edwards, who’s fouled out of 10 games this season.

Orange(man) to watch: Buddy Boeheim, guard.

Boeheim got 17 points against the Deacons in the first matchup, and is coming off a 25-point game – the only one who wasn’t terrible in Syracuse’s 11-point loss to Pittsburgh earlier this week.

But in scoring 17 the first time these teams matched up, the senior was 5-for-20. Wake Forest ran length at him, with Isaiah Mucius and Jake LaRavia (both 6-8) and even Khadim Sy (6-10) taking turns guarding the 6-6, 205-pound Boeheim.

You’d expect a similar strategy for the Deacons in this game, with the added possibility that Damari Monsanto could be matched up on Boeheim for at least a couple of possessions.

Deacon(s) to watch: Damari Monsanto and Daivien Williamson.

Wake Forest gets two missing links back for the second matchup against Syracuse.

Monsanto wasn’t quite up to speed when the Deacons beat Syracuse in overtime this month, while that was one of two games that Williamson missed while he was out because of COVID.

They’re both active for this game, though, which means Wake Forest will have its full assortment of dangerous shooters against the 2-3 zone.

Three games into his Wake Forest career, Monsanto has shown that he’s not shy about pulling the trigger from beyond the arc; 19 of his 22 shots have been 3-pointers. It’ll be a while before his triple-strike 3-pointers in a 61-second span against North Carolina is forgotten by Wake Forest fans.

Williamson returned for the Deacons’ next game after missing the Jan. 8 matchup, but took a few games to find his shooting touch.

That rediscovery occurred last weekend and into Monday, when Williamson had a combined 31 points on 11-for-14 shooting (4 of 7 on 3-pointers).

So, in short, Wake Forest has two of its top shooters returning to the lineup and rounding into form so they can bust Syracuse’s zone.

KenPom prediction: Wake Forest wins 79-76.

Deacons Illustrated prognosis: You can’t use the taking-care-of-business line twice in the same week, right?

Well, here goes.

Wake Forest is positioned for a top-five finish in the ACC and is on the right side of the NCAA tournament bubble. Riding a four-game winning streak, and having won six of their last seven, the Deacons are hot after the pair of road losses about a month ago.

Now the task is to simply stay hot.

Beating Syracuse won’t do much for the Deacons’ tournament résumé – really, only four of the next 10 games would provide a boost on strength of opponent alone – but a loss would be a momentum-stalling result.