WINSTON-SALEM – In terms of watchability, Wake Forest’s offense in two games this week has been …

Acceptable? Preferable? Dare we say, ideal?

The Deacons’ 77-59 victory against N.C. State on Saturday at Joel Coliseum started 2025 in a similar way as 2024 ended, which was Tuesday’s 10-point win at Syracuse.

Each game only counts for one win in the standings. And the Deacons haven’t appeased the metrics deities enough to be considered an NCAA tournament team — at least, not yet.

The trend is the point, though — and the points are flowing.

“This team needed practice to kind of find themselves,” coach Steve Forbes said on Saturday. “I know a lot has been said, rightfully so, about our numbers on offense and all of these analytical things about the way we started the season.

“But if you look at our numbers in December and January, in the ACC as a team, we’re shooting 48% from the field. We’re shooting 37% from 3, 76(%) from the line. Those are winning numbers.”

All of those numbers compiled look like: 100-for-210 shooting, 23-for-61 on 3-pointers, and 69-for-89 at the free-throw line. It’s led to three wins in four ACC games and in a league devoid of many Bonafide teams near the top, the door is open for Wake Forest (11-4, 3-1 ACC) to rack up wins.

And those wins could look like Saturday’s display, which saw Wake Forest trail for all of 22 seconds in the opening minute. The Deacons led by as much as 15 in the first half, survived a push from N.C. State (8-6, 1-2) that made it a two-point game early in the second half, and surged to a 22-point lead with five minutes left.

“That was a big win for us. The amount of points we won by but also, just the way we played as a team,” said freshman Juke Harris, who scored a career-high 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting. “The crowd was into it, so I just love it.”

Unofficially, Wake Forest had 73 points in 56 possessions — a clip of 1.30 points per possession. That got the Deacons to a 73-51 lead with a little less than five minutes remaining, rendering the competitive portion of this game over.

N.C. State’s previous worst for defensive efficiency was allowing 1.21 ppp to Kansas in a 75-60 loss at Allen Fieldhouse last month.

Harris was Wake’s leading scorer at halftime with 14 points, ushering the Deacons to the locker room with a 38-32 lead. His prowess around the rim was needed after Wake Forest — which started Ty-Laur Johnson for the second straight game — broke N.C. State’s full-court pressure.

Hunter Sallis picked up the scoring in the second half to finish with 20 points, his fourth straight game with at least that many. The senior guard did it on an efficient 8-for-14 shooting, had five rebounds and three assists, didn’t turn the ball over once, and had a block and a steal.

There’s a reason the mention of Johnson starting was followed by a mention of how good Sallis was in this game.

“Look, nobody said he was going to be the 40-minute point guard from Day One in June,” Forbes said of Sallis. “I never said that. That’s ridiculous.

“We needed, you know, somebody else. It just didn’t happen at the pace we needed it to happen, for a lot of different reasons.”

Now that Sallis can play off of the ball, and spend some time instead all of his minutes as Wake’s point guard, he’s scoring at a prolific rate and the Deacons’ offense looks better than it has all season.

Tre’Von Spillers was Wake’s third player in double-figure scoring, with 12 points. He was 6-for-7 from the field, had five rebounds and blocked four shots, which ties a season-high.

For the second straight game, Wake Forest got off to a sizzling start. The Deacons scored on their first five possessions, leading 10-3 after three minutes. That grew to 19-4 over the next few minutes, the lead ballooning with 3s by Harris and Sallis on back-to-back possessions.

The Wolfpack trimmed into the lead in part because Efton Reid III picked up his second foul with 12:27 left in the first half and went to the bench for the rest of the half. And then the Deacons were really hamstrung when Sallis picked up his second with 9:31 before halftime — he exited when it was a 10-point lead and Forbes put him back in the game as N.C. State made it a one-score game a few times late in the first half.

TIP-INS: Wake Forest is 8-0 at home this season, marking the fourth straight season the Deacons have won their first eight home games. … Johnson played 38 minutes and had nine points, four assists and three turnovers. His previous season-high for minutes was 24 against Minnesota. … N.C. State was led by Marcus Hill Jr.’s 14 points. … Markus Kerr, a guard from Charlotte in the Class of 2026, was at the game seated behind Wake’s bench.