WINSTON-SALEM – Tyree Appleby felt like he was too open — but he drilled the shot that he usually makes in practices when it mattered most.

Appleby’s game-winning 3-pointer came off of a Scott Drew/Valparaiso design, delivering a 68-65 overtime win for Wake Forest in a non-conference game against Utah Valley on Tuesday night at Joel Coliseum.

“We run our end-of-the-game plays every practice, so we were prepared for this moment,” said Appleby, the guard who transferred from Florida. “Yeah for sure (I knew it was going in). I felt like I was too open.”

Not quite a buzzer-beater, as a review put four-tenths of a second back on the clock after Wake’s bench erupted — but the final shot of the game, as Utah Valley’s desperation heave was after the horn.

As coach Steve Forbes pointed out, the play that led to Appleby’s wide-open look was as much about a couple of passes as it was the shot.

With 3.3 seconds left, Cameron Hildreth’s baseline in-bound pass found the hands of Matthew Marsh — British sophomore-to-British sophomore on that one — and Marsh barely had two hands on the ball before dishing to a wide-open Appleby for a 3-pointer from the wing.

Swish.

“It really comes down to the pass and the catch, first,” Forbes said. “And then it comes down to Ty making a big shot.”

This was hardly the first test of the season for Wake Forest (3-0), which had a tooth-and-nail opener against Fairfield and held off a couple of Georgia rallies Friday night.

It proved to be the toughest test of the season.

The Deacons trailed for most of the last 10 minutes of regulation and were down 50-43 with 7:35 left. Appleby scored nine of his game-high 23 points in the final four minutes of regulation and overtime, and Andrew Carr scored eight of his 15 points in the last eight minutes of regulation and overtime. Carr also hauled in 14 rebounds — the first double-double of his short Wake Forest career thus far.

Carr drilled a 3-pointer to give Wake Forest a lead with 2:01 left; Trey Woodbury drew Utah Valley even with a turnaround jumper with 58 seconds left. Woodbury was 1-for-12 before that shot.

Appleby had a chance to win the game in regulation after the Deacons got a defensive stop in the closing seconds, but dished to freshman Bobi Klintman in transition in the closing seconds and the freshman was unable to get off a shot before the buzzer.

“I think he kinda lost track of time, tried to hit Bobi for a layup,” Forbes said. “It’s probably a good play. Probably should’ve shot it, but it’s hard, you’re coming down, you can’t really see the clock.”

The finishing flourish put an exclamation on what was otherwise a disjointed night.

Wake’s effort was there but offense was hard to come by — the Deacons shot 32.3% from the field (21 of 65). What helped Wake Forest notch a win was that Utah Valley (2-2) was 25-for-75.

“They showed some grittiness,” Forbes said of his team. “I like to use that GGTT stuff (gritty, grimey, tough, together). I’ve gotta give them credit like, we could’ve easily lost. We could’ve easily folded. You look across the country, there are a lot of those scores. To teams that are worse than that team.

“So you’ve gotta give credit to our players for continuing to find a way to win.”

Wake Forest started slow and Utah Valley’s lead reached 9-0 before Forbes had seen enough and called a timeout. That came after the Wolverines grabbed two offensive rebounds on the same possession, the second leading to Aziz Bandaogo’s two-handed flush.

Bandaogo wasn’t one of the two Wolverines in double-figure scoring — those were Justin Harmon (19 points) and Le’Tre Darthard (18) — but the 7-footer had nine points, 17 rebounds and three blocks.

The Deacons clicked into gear quickly, going on a 16-2 spurt over about six minutes to take an 18-13 lead. The last of those points came on Damari Monsanto’s first points — a 3-pointer, of course — of the season.

Utah Valley didn’t trail for long, though, going on an 8-0 run in about 80 seconds. There were six lead changes in the last eight minutes of the first half, setting the stage for the tightly contested second half and overtime periods.

TIP-INS: Both teams observed a moment of silence before the game to honor the three football players at Virginia who were killed a shooting this week. … Daivien Williamson had 10 points, including a key 3-pointer in the closing minutes. … Utah Valley and Wake Forest are both headed to the Jersey Mike’s Jamaica Classic and are scheduled to depart at the same time Tuesday morning, though they’re not playing each other in the event. Wake Forest plays LaSalle on Friday, and will either play the winner or loser between Georgetown and Loyola Marymount; the teams on Utah Valley’s side of the bracket are Queens, Green Bay and Morgan State.