Bryant McIntosh broke a 53-53 tie with five straight points, giving Northwestern the lead for good in a 65-58 win on Monday night over Wake Forest in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

McIntosh, a junior point guard, also tacked on a 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:02 left for a 61-55 lead. He finished with a game-high 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field as the Wildcats upped their record to 5-2.

There were nine ties and 13 lead changes in this matchup of teams picked to finish in the lower half of their conferences. McIntosh's 3-point play with 3:13 left snapped the last tie and started a game-ending 12-5 run.

Scottie Lindsey added 12 points for Northwestern, Gavin Skelly hit for 11 and Sanjay Lumpkin scored 10 points. Lumpkin iced the game with back-to-back layups as he got behind the pressing Demon Deacons in the last 20 seconds.

John Collins led Wake Forest (5-2) with 12 points and 16 rebounds but missed chunks of the second half with leg cramps. Keyshawn Woods came off the bench to score 12 points, and Konstantinos Mitoglou added 11 points and 11 boards.

The Demon Deacons owned the boards to the tune of 48-37, scoring 25 points off 19 offensive rebounds. But they made only 19 of 61 shots from the field and 5 of 21 on 3-pointers.

Wake Forest got off to a strong start, establishing the game's largest lead at 24-16 with 7:56 left in the first half as Collins sank a jumper to cap an 8-0 run. But the Wildcats chipped away at the deficit and actually led briefly before the Demon Deacons managed a 31-30 edge at halftime after a layup by Mitoglou.