WINSTON-SALEM – Crisis averted — though, hardly confidence inspiring.

Wake Forest was pushed to the brink by USC Upstate and rallied in the closing minutes for an 85-80 win on Wednesday night at Joel Coliseum.

“I thought they had us spinning, defensively, at times,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “Because they cut, they screen … for the first time this year, defensively, I thought we got extended. We got way too spread out and it opened up gaps.”

Wake Forest (4-0) had been able to hang its hat on defense for the first three games — holding Coppin State and N.C. A&T well under 1.0 points per possession and stifling Michigan in the second half on Sunday.

But the Deacons’ transition defense was lacking early, which bred confidence for USC Upstate (1-3). And then it became a matter of the Spartans taking advantage of some matchups; freshman Mister Dean had 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting (and was limited to 24 minutes because he piled up fouls) and guard Brit Harris scored 16 on 6-for-9 shooting.

“I don’t know about surprised. I was disappointed,” Forbes said of his team’s defense. “Watching them on film, I knew they could get us spread out and we were going to have some of those matchups that don’t go in our favor defensively with big guys.

“I was disappointed in our defensive transition. That’s how they got going and that’s not technique, that’s effort.”

Wake Forest is now 30-1 in non-conference home games under Forbes; the loss was last year’s NIT game against Georgia that Hunter Sallis missed after tripping while exiting the court after the first-round NIT win.

This one probably registers as the most shockingly close game.

Everything for Wake Forest seemed to come with the utmost difficulty, seemingly after the first minute of the game. The Deacons only had five “kills” — three straight defensive stops — and until Davin Cosby Jr. got hot in the last 12 minutes, the Deacons were 3-for-20 from long range.

The shooting from the Alabama transfer, though, probably saved the Deacons from a loss.

Cosby made four 3s in the final 12 minutes. He took the first three of them when the Deacons were trailing on the scoreboard; the fourth one broke a 75-75 tie with 2:22 left.

Wake Forest held on through the end of the game, thanks to a three-point play by Cameron Hildreth on the next possession, four last-minute free throws, and a defensive stand to preserve a three-point lead with Hildreth walling up as a low-post defender and securing the defensive rebound.

“They gave us a good fight and made us work for it, for sure,” said Hildreth, who had 18 points, five rebounds and five assists, playing better and with more effort in the second half.

Sallis led Wake Forest with 23 points, his first 20-point game of the season (he had 15 of them last season). The senior guard had six assists and five rebounds, too, operating in the high ball screen and torching USC Upstate with short jumpers in the paint.

Cosby’s tiebreaker came after a timeout, with the 6-5, 210-pounder floating to the weak side of a screen and getting enough space to pull the trigger. He made four 3s in Wake’s first three games; he was 5-for-7 from long range Wednesday night.

“He’s a really good shooter and we knew we could get that look, probably, off that flare,” Forbes said. “And we did a really good job executing it coming out of the timeout.”

Wake Forest just couldn’t separate from the Spartans in the first half. The largest lead of the first 20 minutes was 10, at 36-26 when Sallis drilled a 3-pointer — capping a sizzling stretch in which the senior guard scored 11 in a four-minute span.

The Spartans answered with a 3-pointer that started a 10-2 run that kept things tight. Wake’s lead was 41-38 at halftime and USC Upstate took a lead two minutes into the second half.

USC Upstate’s halftime deficits the other two times it played ACC teams were 50-35 (N.C. State) and 37-32 (Virginia Tech).

“I think definitely at the start of the game, our defensive transition wasn’t up to par,” Sallis said. “They did a good job of using their athleticism and pushing the pace. … They’re a really good team, I feel like they’ll do really good in their league.

“So, nothing really to hang our heads about. We just know we have a lot of work to do, come this weekend.”

Wake’s next game is a Saturday trip to Xavier for the resumption of the Skip Prosser Classic.

TIP-INS: Wake Forest was 7-for-26 on 3-pointers and is now 28 of 108 (25.9%) from behind the 3-point line this season. … Freshman Juke Harris had eight points but was 1-for-6 on 3s, and Forbes said a couple of times that he cost the Deacons on the defensive end. … Forbes confirmed that second-year forward Marqus Marion will still redshirt this season. That needed clarifying after Wednesday’s earlier news that sophomore Omaha Biliew will miss 8-10 weeks as he recovers from aggravating a foot injury he initially suffered in May.