Wake Forest @ Penn St. preview

Penn State has a two-point loss to an SEC squad on a neutral court as its lone blemish on the young season. The Nittany Lions will try to stay hot amid a challenging stretch of games when they host Wake Forest on Wednesday for an ACC/Big Ten Challenge affair.

Penn State followed up its 74-72 loss to Ole Miss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. last week with an 85-64 victory over Syracuse in the NIT Season Tip-Off consolation game Friday, its second double-digit win over a Big East team this season. "I think these guys really responded well to the challenge from the Ole Miss (game)," coach Patrick Chambers, whose team begins Big Ten play Saturday at No. 6 Ohio State before hosting No. 4 Maryland on Tuesday, told reporters. "We had a great day yesterday ... tried to move on. We talked about responding, talked about taking care of the little things, discipline, mental conditioning and how you can't think a game is over when there is so much time left, and we have to play to win and I thought we did that tonight." The Demon Deacons will be seeking a similar bounce-back effort after falling to No. 11 Arizona 73-66 in the title game of the Wooden Legacy on Sunday. They are 0-2 against Power 5 conference teams.

TV: 9:15 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT WAKE FOREST (5-3): Senior guard Brandon Childress leads the Demon Deacons with 16.9 points per game after recording 19 on 4-of-18 shooting in the loss to Arizona. Junior center Olivier Sarr tied his season highs with 21 points and 13 rebounds against the Wildcats, notching his third double-double in the last four games. Junior guard Chaundee Brown ranks third in scoring (12.9) and second in rebounding (6.9) while freshman forward Ody Oguama has 12 rebounds and three blocks in 32 minutes over his last two games.

ABOUT PENN STATE (6-1): Senior forward Lamar Stevens pushed his team-leading scoring average to 18.0 with a 20-point effort against Syracuse, while senior big man Mike Watkins recorded his second straight double-double with 15 points and 16 boards. Watkins also has 12 blocks and six steals in those two games and he entered Tuesday tied for fourth in the country with 28 blocks on the season. Sophomore guard Myreon Jones chipped in 16 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double in the win over the Orange.

TIP-INS

1. Childress, Sarr and Brown are a combined 99-for-121 from the free-throw line and Wake Forest entered Tuesday ranked 27th nationally in foul shooting at 77.1 percent.

2. Nittany Lions grad transfer G Curtis Jones had season highs with 14 points and four assists against Syracuse.

3. The teams split two previous meetings but haven't matched up since 1989.

PREDICTION: Penn State 77, Wake Forest 70