WINSTON-SALEM – The 10th-ranked UNC Pembroke men's basketball team scored 24 points off of 17 first half turnovers to take a 33-32 lead into the break, but Wake Forest shot better than 58 percent in the second half to fuel an 86-64 win over the Braves on Friday evening in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The setback snapped a three-game win streak in exhibition games for the Braves who closed out the preseason portion of their 2015-16 slate with the outing. It was the only scheduled exhibition game for the Demon Deacons who will open up regular season play on November 13 against Maryland-Baltimore County at home as part of the Maui Invitational.

UNCP got a dozen points from both Brandon Watts and Quamain Rose, while Alex Bradley and freshman Carson Mounce both chipped in 10. The Braves scored 33 points on 25 turnovers by Wake Forest, but were on the wrong end of a 49-34 rebounding disparity as well.

Devin Thomas registered a double-double with 25 points and 16 rebounds to pace the Demon Deacons, who also got 15 points from Dinos Mitoglou and 12 points off the bench from John Collins. The hosts shot 51.9 percent from the field on the night, and tallied 11 blocked shots. Wake Forest also out-scored the Braves, 38-20, in the paint.

Watts nailed a trey on the opening possession of the second stanza to push a slight halftime lead out to four, 36-32, but a lay-in by Greg McClinton 11 seconds later sparked the Demon Deacons on a 16-2 run that helped them stake claim to a 48-38 lead at the 14:34 mark. Wake Forest had padded that lead all the way out to 21 points following three-straight dunks by the hosts with less than two minutes to play.

The Demon Deacons took an early 9-2 lead after a jumper by Thomas just less than four minutes into the contest, but the Braves scored the game's next nine points to grab an 11-9 advantage three minutes later.  Wake Forest took a 21-20 lead on a pair of free throws by Mitoglou with 7:21 left before the break, but UNCP out-scored the hosts 10-3 over the next four minutes and eventually lugged a 33-32 advantage into the locker rooms.

The Braves will officially tip off their 2015-16 regular season on Friday when they head to Florence, S.C., to take part in the two-day, four-team PBC/SAC Challenge inside Francis Marion's Smith University Center. The Black & Gold is slated to battle Lenoir-Rhyne in Friday's opening game at 2 p.m., and will take on Catawba on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.