WINSTON-SALEM – After coming within two buckets at Florida State and falling in overtime at home to Duke last week, North Carolina failed to connect its effort, focus and level of play Tuesday night in falling 74-57 to Wake Forest at Joel Coliseum.

UNC struggled out of the gate digging too deep a hole to overcome in losing for the fourth consecutive time, its third losing streak of four or more games this season.

The Tar Heels dropped to 10-14 overall and 3-10 in the ACC while the Demon Deacons improved to 11-13 and 4-10.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s loss at Wake Forest:

The Tar Heels opened the game with very little energy and it was obvious in how they performed as Wake gradually built its lead, which reached 20 points twice in the first half at 39-19 and 44-24 before Jeremiah Francis hit a jumper just before halftime.

Carolina was sluggish opening the second half before as the Deacons extended the lead to 54-28 with 16:41 left, their largest of the night.

Carolina was slow running its offense, not at all authoritative getting position down low, on the glass, and was slow afoot and reacting on defense, didn’t get into passing lanes, and just played about as poorly as they have all season on both ends of the floor.

To the Tar Heels’ credit, they did make a push, cutting the margin to nine with 2:37 left, but then Wake closed on an 8-0 run.

“Wake Forest had more want to out there today, more effort, more enthusiasm, better coaching, better everything that was involved in the course of the game, they had it better than we did…,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said.

“There’s been so many of them this year I can’t remember what kind of sense I had frickin’ yesterday. Usually I can remember every game we lose and tell you all about it but we haven’t come to play enough this year to make those a small number.”

To illustrate how poorly the team played: Armando Bacot/s plus-minus for the night was minus-21, Christian Keeling was minus-14, Cole Anthony minus-11, Andrew Platek minus-10 and Walker Miller was minus-10.

Did any of the players get the sense they weren’t ready to play, and if not, when did they realize something was off?

“Probably off tip,” Black said. “As soon as the first couple of possessions, I realized we really weren’t ready to play and that’s going to hit us in the mouth and that’s exactly what happened.”

UNC scored 26 points in the first half on 34 possessions, a number aided by the fact that the Heels scored on their final three possessions of the half.

11-35 (31.4 percent) from the floor in the first half, including 0-6 from 3 --- four assists and five turnovers – just ugly shots, contested shots and errant shots. For the game, the Heels were 21-for-63 (33.3 percent) from the floor, including 1-for-16 (6.3 percent) from beyond the arc. They registered just nine assists versus 14 turnovers and Anthony’s line was 5-for-19 overall, including 0-for-6 from 3-point range, four assists and seven turnovers.

Carolina scored just 57 points on 67 possessions, and that includes having a 29-12 run which significantly upgraded its efficiency rating. Yet, it was still poor for the game. So what is the reasoning?

“We just came out and we just weren’t ready to play, pretty much,” Anthony said. “That’s no excuse to it.”

The Demon Deacons drove to the rim area with relative ease, and when a UNC defender cut off the penetration, Wake passed to an open mate for a jumper or sometimes even closer to the rim. Wake shot 56 percent from the floor in the first half, including 47 percent from 3-point range. On the night, the Deacs shot 9-for-23 from the perimeter, which is 39.1 percent, well above their season average.

There are no other earth-shattering stats illustrating how poorly the Heels played on defense, as there wasn’t one specific area Wake dominated. It was spread out success from the perimeter, mid-range stuff, drives, put backs, dump downs, etc. The Deacs assisted on 14 of their 23 field goals.

As lifeless as the Tar Heels appeared for the entire first half and first few minutes of the second half, they slowly got back into the game in part because Wake’s game went into the tank and the Deacons opened the door for a UNC run. But the Tar Heels also took advantage and deserve some kudos for pushing the Deacons to the final minutes.

Christian Keeling scored five of UNC’s first six field goals of the second half and helped keep the Heels afloat and kickstart the run. Several other Heels had a hand in the run, including Black with a couple of scores, Bacot getting down the court on the break and Anthony.

But it was too little too late. Carolina cut the margin to 66-57 with 2:37 left before Wake scored the final eight points of the game.

With Garrison Brooks dealing with an eye injury suffered Saturday night versus Duke and then getting whacked in the mouth causing it to bleed quite a bit, so Williams called on 6-foot-11 junior Walker Miller.

This was by far Miller’s most significant role in a game in his career. He played seven minutes versus Ohio State and six at Gonzaga as previous highs. Last season, his high game was four minutes at Wake, a game UNC won by 42 points. As a freshman, his high game was five minutes in a 17-point win over Northern Iowa.

Miller entered Tuesday’s game having played 29 minutes total for the season. He played 30 minutes as a sophomore and 29 as a freshman. So, 14.4 percent of Miller’s playing time for his career occurred Tuesday night.

So, what was his mantra from Williams when he was called on?

“Just trying to remember the scout, remember my people that I’ve got to guard and just do my job that coach tells me to do and try to do that to the best of my ability,” Miller said.