WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. ? Wake Forest finally won with defense, even if it wasn’t how coach Skip Prosser would like to draw it up.

His man-to-man didn’t work, and neither did a triangle-in-two. So he decided on a zone, and that finally stopped Texas.

“I would rather not have done it, but right now, we are still not Roger Clemens,” Prosser said. “We are still a little bit of a junk-ball pitcher.”

With the No. 14 Longhorns stymied, Chris Paul had 23 points and a career-high 12 assists, and Eric Williams added 19 points in a 89-88 victory for No. 6 Wake Forest on Saturday.

Kenton Paulino missed an 18-foot jumper just before the buzzer that would have won it for the 14th-ranked Longhorns.

“That shot at the end, I looked at it, and he looked like he was going to make it,” Paul said.

Vytas Danelius, banished to the bench in the previous game, gave the Demon Deacons (9-1) the lead for good with a reverse layup in traffic with about 31/2 minutes left. The hosts went 6-of-8 on free throws down the stretch to seal it.

P.J. Tucker tied a career high with 27 points and added 14 rebounds for the Longhorns (7-2), and Brad Buckman finished with 17 points. This was a rematch of a game last season won by Texas, 94-81, behind 21 points from then-freshman Tucker.

“It really doesn’t matter to me,” Tucker said of his performance. “If I would not have scored and got the win, I would be happier.”

Wake Forest players Jamaal Levy, right, and Vytas Danelius, back right, celebrate their victory with fans. The sixth-ranked Demon Deacons knocked off No. 14 Texas, 89-88, Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Against the zone, the Longhorns struggled. They went four straight possessions without scoring, and three of them ended in long three-pointers after only a couple of passes. Tucker didn’t touch the ball.

“We must continue to work inside and outside,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said. “We talked the entire game about being aggressive from start to finish, and again, we cannot go five trips without going inside.”

Paul set a new best for assists for the second straight game, topping the 11 he had Wednesday night against Elon. Wake Forest struggled to win that one, and Danelius missed the final 16 minutes after Prosser sent him to the bench for an undisclosed transgression.