Syracuse 86, Wake Forest 83 (OT): Rakeem Christmas scored a career-high 35 points and pulled down nine rebounds as the host Orange survived in overtime.

Michael Gbinije recorded 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists and Trevor Cooney scored 21 points for Syracuse (13-4, 4-0 ACC), which was playing its first game since losing freshman forward Chris McCullough to a season-ending ACL tear. Freshman Konstantinos Mitoglou scored 26 points - nine more than his previous career high - on 10-of-13 shooting, while Codi Miller-McIntyre added 24 points, six assists and six rebounds for Wake Forest (9-9, 1-4).

Christmas scored eight points in overtime and Gbinije had six for the Orange, who nearly squandered a five-point lead with under five seconds remaining. Miller-McIntyre buried a long 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds to go and Cooney made 1-of-2 foul shots to restore a 3-point lead before Cornelius Hudson's heave from the opposing 3-point line rolled around the rim and spun out at the buzzer.

The Demon Deacons began to take over early in the second half as Darius Leonard made back-to-back 3-pointers before Mitoglou hit one on the next possession and added a jumper on the next trip, giving the visitors a 50-41 advantage. Syracuse rallied in front 71-68 in the waning minutes, but Hudson got wide open and drained a 3-pointer with 14.1 seconds left before Gbinije missed the go-ahead layup on the other end.

Gbinije made a free throw, a jumper and a 3-pointer to put the Orange ahead 79-75 midway through overtime before Devin Thomas split a pair of foul shots and made a layup off a nice feed from Madison Jones, drawing Wake Forest within a point with 1:17 to go. Christmas went 6-of-6 from the line to push the cushion back to 85-80 with 8.8 seconds left before the Demon Deacons made things interesting late.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Mitoglou was 6-of-6 in the first half and led all players with 16 points as Wake Forest led 37-36 at the break. ... Thomas (11 points, 10 rebounds) has three double-doubles in the last four games. ... Syracuse only used seven players and received a total of three points from its reserves. Tyler Roberson started in McCullough's place and shot 3-of-11 for six points with 10 boards.