Two touchdowns by Claiborne, late defensive stand spark Wake Forest in 23-20 win over Connecticut

EAST HARTFORD, Ct. (AP) Demond Claiborne had a pair of touchdowns, Wake Forest defense made a late defensive stand, and the Demon Deacons edged UConn 23-20 on Saturday.

Claiborne’s 1-yard scoring run on the opening drive of the second half gave the Demon Deacons a 14-point lead. UConn responded as Nick Evers connected with Jasaiah Gathings on a 20-yard pass as UConn cut the lead back to seven points.

UConn (4-3) trailed by 10 points before a 25-yard touchdown catch by Louis Hansen with 2:27 left to play pulled the Huskies within three points. UConn had one last chance to either tie or take the lead. A fourth-down pass fell incomplete as the Huskies dropped their second game of the season to a team from the ACC.

UConn coach Jim Mora said that he believed either defensive pass interference or defensive holding could have been called on UConn’s final offensive play. That would have given the Huskies a chance to get the additional 10-15 yards needed to attempt the game-tying field goal by Chris Freeman, who kicked a 53-yarder in the first half.

Wake Forest had chances to put the Huskies away and not put the defense in a position of having to make some late plays to hold on for a victory.

“They are good in the red-zone defense,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said. “I thought our defense set us up with good field position early in the game and we kept (giving) those opportunities away and I thought that would catch up with us.

“We are fortunate to get out of here with a three-point win. I prefer to clean these things up after a win. Your problems are your problems, but they are fun to clean up coming off a win.”

A 41-yard pass from Hank Bachmeier to Micah Mays Jr. set up the first touchdown when Claiborne took a handoff up the middle but with no room to run, he bounced out to the outside for the 5-yard TD.

UConn was limited to a pair of field goals by Freeman in the first half.

Wake Forest (3-4) had a chance to add to the lead before halftime but Cam Chadwick intercepted Bachmeier in the end zone as the Demon Deacons took a 13-6 lead at halftime.

Bachmeier was 21 of 36 for 274 yards. Taylor Morin had six catches for 104 yards for Wake Forest. Evers passed for 264 yards for the Huskies.

Evers had just 96 passing yards at halftime and UConn was outgained 228-124 in the first two quarters.

“I take full responsibility,” Evers said. “If I had played better, we would have been in a better situation going into the fourth quarter.”

Three of UConn’s first 11 drives were shorter than 20 yards and Wake Forest started two drives in UConn territory while controlling the field-position battle.

Wake Forest won its third game in a row despite settling for field goals on three drives into the red zone. Another red-zone drive ended with a blocked field goal.

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons hit the road to face Stanford on Saturday.

UConn: The Huskies play the fifth of six straight home games when Rice comes to East Hartford on Saturday.

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