WINSTON-SALEM – Six games into the season, Wake Forest wants to show more of its identity across full games.

“I just feel like we’re a team that comes out and just needs to be more aggressive from the get-go,” junior guard Cameron Hildreth said. “Maybe just show some more identity, that’s what we’ve been working on as a team.”

The Deacons have done a nice job of showing aggression as their identity in the second half, as was the case in Friday afternoon’s 71-56 win over Charleston Southern at Joel Coliseum.

A four-point halftime deficit was overcome by making 20 free throws in the second half and holding the Buccaneers to 7-for-26 shooting.

“It wasn’t a pretty game,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “But it was a team that averages 78 points a game that got held to … 56. So that’s a positive. We made free throws, we put pressure on them off the bounce.”

Wake Forest’s (3-3) surge in the second half came across an 11-minute span in which the Deacons had three field goals — all of them layups by Hildreth, who scored a game-high 21 points.

That was when the Deacons got aggressive offensively and were rewarded with trips to the free-throw line. They made 15 of 16 free throws in that stretch — six by Hildreth and five by Andrew Carr.

“We’ve worked really hard on drive-and-kick, and so we were looking for that,” Forbes said. “But we had angles to the basket, so we got there. And we have bigger, physical guards, that can get there.

“We did a good job of putting pressure on the rim and we made free throws. Gotta make them. We’re one of the better free-throw shooting teams in the country.”

Hildreth’s pair of free throws that gave Wake Forest a 40-39 lead with 12½ minutes left marked the Deacons’ first lead since it was 8-5 after a few minutes in the first half.

Charleston Southern (2-4) retook the lead for all of 32 seconds before Wake Forest went on a 7-0 run — every point coming at the free-throw line — to take control and ease into the 15-point win.

“Honestly, we’re a very mature team,” Hildreth said. “You know, we’re still working together, it’s still early in the season. We’re going to be fine. We’ve got a big game on Wednesday coming up, so we’re going to prepare for that.

“But we’ve shown signs of everything we need to do to be the best team that we can be.”

Joining Hildreth in double-figure scoring were the other three usual suspects; Kevin Miller scored 14, and Hunter Sallis and Carr each scored 12.

Charleston Southern’s biggest lead of the first half was 10, at 30-20. Wake Forest scored the next eight points, getting some semblance of momentum with a Miller three-point play, and then back-to-back possessions with a Sallis 3-pointer and a Sallis mid-range jumper.

The Deacons had the ball in the final minute with a chance to tie or take the lead going into halftime; instead, Sallis’ pass was intercepted and it turned into a bucket going the other way for the Buccaneers’ 32-28 halftime lead.

TIP-INS: Wake Forest junior center Matthew Marsh played for the first time since the loss at Georgia. He had a dunk on an early lob for his two points, and grabbed three rebounds in 15 minutes. … Charleston Southern scored 24 points in the second half and was 7-for-26 from the field. … Wake Forest freshman Marqus Marion scored five points and had four rebounds, grabbing three of those on the defensive end in the last five minutes and helping the Deacons close out the game. … Forbes gave an update on the situations of Damari Monsanto (knee injury) and Efton Reid III (NCAA limbo), which was that there is no new news. See the full quote below.