Devin Thomas supplied 21 points and 17 rebounds as Wake Forest fought off Maryland-Baltimore County 78-73 in Friday night's season opener at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Konstantinos Mitoglou added 19 points and 16 rebounds for Wake Forest, which won its opener for the fifth season in a row.

The Demon Deacons were too strong on the interior for Maryland-Baltimore County. Nine 3-point baskets helped make up for Wake Forest's 56-32 rebounding advantage.

Freshmen John Collins and Bryant Crawford made key plays down the stretch for the Demon Deacons, whose lead shrunk to one point several times in the final few minutes.

Crawford's two free throws with 1:20 left pushed the lead to 74-71. He made two more foul shots at the 30-second mark.

Collins, a forward, ended up with 10 points and Crawford, a guard, had nine.

The Demon Deacons needed the contributions as they played without injured guard Codi Miller-McIntyre, who's expected to miss the first few weeks of the season with a broken foot.

Guard Jourdan Grant scored 20 points for the Retrievers. Guards Rodney Elliott and Malcolm Brent both had 13 points, and forward Joe Sherburne added 12.

Wake Forest led 41-40 at halftime after a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes.

It was the first meeting between the teams. This was a mainland game as part of the Maui Invitational.