A big effort from junior power forward Bonzie Colson delivered a big win for Notre Dame.

Colson scored a season-high 27 points with a game-high 16 rebounds, his 15th double-double to lead the unranked Irish to an 88-81 victory over Wake Forrest at Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame improves to 18-7, 7-5 in the ACC. Wake Forest is 14-10, 5-7.

Wake Forest sophomore John Collins scored at least 20 points for the seventh straight game. He finished with 24.

Going small for much of the game, the Irish erupted for 52 points in the second half.

The Demon Deacons led by eight with 14 minutes remaining.

The Irish had lost four in a row and five of six. They last won Jan. 21 at home against Syracuse.

Notre Dame led by as many as five and trailed by as many as six in a first half of runs. Wake took a five-point lead at the break following a Bryant Crawford 3 at the horn.

Mike Brey juggled the starting lineup for a second-straight game and third-straight half in going with sophomore guard Rex Pflueger. It was Pflueger's second career start and first this season.

Pflueger had a turnover and picked up two fouls the first 6:47.

After vowing to go small and stay small for as long as he could, Brey was back to playing with two bigs -- Colson and Martinas Geben -- less than seven minutes into Tuesday's game.

Hoping, and maybe almost wishing, for more of a flow offensively, Brey watched the Irish connected on only six of their first 16 shots. That tossed them into a four-point hole early after a 9-0 Wake run fueled by Collins.

Nobody in gold had an answer for Collins.

"Be bigger!" Brey barked at his guys during one early break.

This night, they were.