Cincinnati ? Eric Williams knew it would come down to him.

Wake Forest’s versatile center was two inches taller than anyone on Cincinnati’s front line. With that advantage in mind, the Demon Deacons planned to spread out, get him the ball and let him score.

It only took a couple of shots for Williams to stop fretting.

The 6-foot-9 center scored a career-high 29 points, having his way with Cincinnati’s front line, and No. 3 Wake Forest never trailed in a 74-70 victory Saturday over the 20th-ranked Bearcats.

“I felt nervous,” Williams said. “I knew the kind of players we were playing against today. They play so hard. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I was telling myself I can’t let the team down coming off a loss.”

The Demon Deacons (16-2) rebounded from their overtime loss to Florida State by hitting their free throws down the stretch — something they didn’t do against the Seminoles.

Taron Downey missed a free throw with four seconds left against Florida State, ending Wake Forest’s NCAA record at 50 consecutive free throws made and sending it to overtime. He swished two free throws with two seconds left Saturday to clinch the win, and Wake Forest made its last seven overall.

“We needed a game like this,” coach Skip Prosser said.

The Bearcats (15-3) had their biggest weaknesses exposed as they lost at home to a ranked team for the second time in eight days. They also fell by three points against Louisville on Jan 15.

Neither 6-7 Jason Maxiell nor 6-6 Eric Hicks — the power forwards who anchor Cincinnati’s front line — could keep up with a taller player who shot over them once he got the ball.

“It was a gamble,” Hicks said. “By the time I got around him, he had it and would dunk.”

Chris Paul added 21 points for Wake Forest, which improved to 5-1 against ranked teams this season. Paul was 5-of-7 from behind the arc.

Hicks had 18 points, only two of them in the second half, to lead three Cincinnati players in double figures.

An intriguing matchup of one of the nation’s top offenses against one of the toughest defenses turned on the Bearcats’ inability to stop Williams. Wake Forest came in averaging 85.5 points a game and had scored 80 points in nine straight, its longest such streak since 10 in a row in 1976-77.

Cincinnati went after the Demon Deacons with a physical man-to-man defense that holds opponents to 35.8 percent shooting, fourth-best in the nation.

An hour before the tip-off, Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins sat down next to Prosser and shared a few laughs. Huggins and Prosser developed a friendship while Prosser coached Xavier from 1994-01, taking the edge off a crosstown rivalry that had turned bitter.

Prosser got the better of Huggins in their annual crosstown games, winning four of seven. Overall, Prosser is 6-4 in their head-to-head games.