Wake Forest returns from long trek to face Florida State

Wake Forest has done much of the groundwork to stay in contention in the Atlantic Coast Conference and boost its credentials for postseason consideration.The Demon Deacons will try to take another crucial step when they host Florida State on Wednesday night in Winston-Salem, N.C.Wake Forest (18-6, 10-3 ACC) has reached the 10-win mark in league play in four straight seasons after defeating Cal 76-66 on Saturday, completing a road sweep of the league’s new Bay Area members.This will mark the final visit to Winston-Salem for retiring Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton.”Coach Hamilton’s teams, they’re just so disruptive defensively,” Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “It makes playing against them very challenging, and that’s what I would say is unique about his teams.”The Seminoles (14-9, 5-7) certainly would like to generate late-season momentum.”We can’t look too far down the road,” Hamilton said. “We have to worry about what we can control, and that’s just our preparation each day. We have to then hope to be so consistent with our preparation, get our confidence, and go into each game and see if we can be at our very, very best.”Malique Ewin has eight double-doubles for Florida State after posting 18 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday’s 67-60 victory against visiting Notre Dame.Cameron Hildreth has been on a recent roll and that has given Wake Forest a strong combo in conjunction with guard Hunter Sallis. Hildreth has posted at least 20 points in five of the last seven games.