WINSTON-SALEM – One game — really, one half — doesn’t mean Wake Forest has solved all of its ailments.

It’s a start, though.

The Deacons came out of a 10-day break and sizzled in the second half of a 75-58 win over James Madison on Tuesday night at Joel Coliseum.

Wake Forest (9-3) scored the last five points of the first half — going to halftime down by one — and that was enough to kickstart an offense that has been underwhelming (at best) this season.

The reality, of course, is more complex. Wake’s offense was addressed often over the last week; the result was scoring 1.55 points per possession in the second half.

“The last 10 days, definitely offense was an emphasis,” said senior guard Hunter Sallis, who scored a game-high 27 points. “I feel like making the right situations where we get … those double gaps and just making sure we have the right spacing so we can get downhill and make the right read and I feel like we did that well in the second half.”

Sallis scored twice in the final minute of the first half and poured in 17 points in the second half, capped by a couple of 3-pointers in the last three minutes to provide the final exclamation points.

“We started playing … inside-out more, through the post. It was great offense today,” said Davin Cosby Jr., who scored 13 points and made three 3s.

It came with some great defense after a rocky start, too.

Wake Forest pulled away from the Dukes (6-5) with a 22-3 run, which went from about the 16-minute mark to there being less than nine minutes left in the game. In that span, Wake Forest had three “kills,” which is three straight defensive stops.

“I thought we’ve been building on it through practice,” coach Steve Forbes said of his team’s second half. “I thought Boston College (on Dec. 7) had some good stuff for us and I was very encouraged with practice.”

Wake Forest never led in the first half. The Dukes scored twice in the first 40 seconds of the game, led 9-3 when Forbes fired an angry timeout less than three minutes in, and had a lead of 21-13 after a little more than nine minutes.

It helped, though, that things never got too far out of control in the first half — as ugly as things were, at times, for the Deacons. They went one 3½-minute stretch without scoring, going 0-for-4 on shots with two turnovers; and were 3-for-7 at the free-throw line in the first half.

But again: The largest deficit Wake Forest faced was eight points.

“First half, we didn’t play great,” Forbes said. “But we stayed in the game with our defense. Offense was just OK. But I thought we really settled in in the second half.

“We needed it. Look, gotta build on the positives, right?”

Confirmed.

TIP-INS: Sallis also had 12 rebounds, which joked “could be a miracle.” It was the senior’s first career double-double; his previous season-high for rebounds was six, and his career-high between Wake Forest and Gonzaga was nine (which happened twice last season). … Cameron Hildreth scored 18 points off the bench. It was the first time he didn’t start since a late-February game in 2023; Forbes said practice performance determined that Cosby and Parker Friedrichsen would start alongside Sallis in the backcourt. … Forbes opened his press conference with a nod to Dave Clawson, who resigned as Wake’s football coach on Monday. You can find video of Forbes’ passionate words on Clawson below (it’s a partial quote).