GAME NOTES: Florida will try to find success outside of Gainesville on Saturday when the Gators take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic at the BB&T Center.

The Gators notched their third win in a row and improved to 6-4 overall on Sunday with a 79-34 rout of Jacksonville at home. Coach Billy Donovan's squad is 5-1 at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, but has gone 1-2 at neutral sites and dropped a 71-65 decision at Kansas in its only true road test. Florida has already suffered setbacks to a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference schools in Miami-Florida (69-67) and North Carolina (75-64) this season. The Gators are 22-16 versus current members of the ACC under Donovan.

Wake Forest climbed back to the .500 mark on Sunday with an 86-68 triumph over Samford. The Demon Deacons dropped three decisions in a row before setting season-highs with 48 points in the paint and 22 fastbreak points versus the Bulldogs. They were completely overmatched in their lone bout against an SEC program this season as they were handed an 83-53 loss by Arkansas when they visited Bud Walton Arena on Nov. 19.

This will be the 12th meeting in history between Florida and Wake Forest on the hardwood. The Gators own a 6-5 all-time series lead thanks to their 77-72 win over Wake Forest at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 17, 2005.

Danny Manning's first year at Wake Forest was expected to be testing since the roster he inherited lacked invaluable senior leadership. The Demon Deacons have a pair of solid juniors spearheading the charge in Codi Miller-McIntyre and Devin Thomas. Miller-McIntyre is averaging a team-best 12.2 ppg despite poor accuracy from both the free-throw line (.579) and beyond the arc (.167). Thomas is posting 11.5 ppg and 9.3 rpg and those averages could rise as he appears to be snapping out of an atrocious slump. The 6-foot-9 forward was held in single digits in the scoring column for four straight games before netting 10 points in Wake Forest's ACC-opening loss to NC State. Thomas then tallied 19 points and eight boards versus Samford in his next outing.

Florida is not an offensive powerhouse as it ranks just 10th in the SEC in scoring offense (68.5 ppg) and eighth in field goal percentage (.450). The Gators have been among the elite on the defensive end of the floor, limiting their opposition to only 56 ppg (2nd in SEC) on 38.7 percent efficiency from the field. Junior guard Michael Frazier II, who set a program record with 118 makes from beyond the arc last season, has emerged as the Gators' go-to-guy with a team-high 15.3 ppg. Junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith set a career- high with 25 points in the lopsided victory over Jacksonville, while Frazier netted 22 points. Florida outrebounded Jacksonville, 41-20, including a 16-8 edge in offensive boards.

The Demon Deacons are a much more lethal opponent when Thomas is producing offensively. Wake Forest also has a promising freshman in Mitchell Wilbekin, who is the younger brother of former Florida great and 2014 SEC Player of the Year Scottie Wilbekin. He will go head-to-head with the Gators' floor general Kasey Hill, who missed the team's last outing due to illness.