Wake Forest sure looked worthy of its first No. 1 ranking. Georgia Tech had a much tougher time pulling out a victory.

Hours after climbing into the top spot of The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in school history, Wake Forest cruised to a 99-72 victory over Yale on Monday night behind 15 points each from Chris Paul, Eric Williams and Kyle Visser.

"The games still feel the same," said Paul, the Demon Deacons' star point guard. "You have to play the same teams. I can understand if it was the end of the season, but we're only three games into the season so it really doesn't mean much."

No. 3 Georgia Tech wasn't nearly as dominant - though its pesky opponent had plenty to do with that.

Luke Schenscher made a pair of clutch free throws with 25.9 seconds left to put the Yellow Jackets ahead, and they survived a scare at Illinois-Chicago with a 60-59 victory. B.J. Elder made three 3-pointers in the final nine minutes, but Georgia Tech still had to sweat out the final possession.

"Obviously, I knew what we were walking into. But this is also the type of experience that can really boost your basketball team," Yellow Jackets coach Paul Hewitt said. "To go on the road this early in the year against a very well-coached team and come out with a win, it can only help in the long run."

Georgia Tech guard Will Bynum grew up in Chicago and was the Public League player of the year in 2001, and the Yellow Jackets (2-0) scheduled this game so his friends and family could see him play.

It nearly was a costly homecoming. The Flames (0-1), who had a 15-game home winning streak against non-conference foes, took a 59-58 lead with 1:59 left on consecutive 3-pointers by Cedrick Banks, who finished with 23 points.

After Schenscher's foul shots, the Flames still had a chance to win, but freshman Kevin Bond missed a free throw with 6 seconds left. Justin Bowen's last-second jumper sailed wide.

"I was worried," said Bynum, who had seven points, four assists and one steal. "I knew I couldn't go into the locker room if we would've lost. I wouldn't have been able to look Coach in the eye. I'm glad we got the win."

At Winston-Salem, N.C., Wake Forest played a solid first half and opened a 17-point lead on Yale (1-2) at the break. Next up is Providence on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT. After leaving New York, the Demon Deacons (3-0) travel to No. 5 Illinois.

"We're finding out a lot about ourselves," coach Skip Prosser said.

At Charlotte, N.C., Daniel Ewing scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half and sparked two big runs to help Duke hold off Davidson.Duke (2-0) beat Davidson for the 18th consecutive time, but nearly blew a 20-point lead in the second half and struggled to put the Wildcats (1-1) away.Brendan Winters scored 24 points for Davidson, which trimmed Duke's lead to four with 5:39 to play. Logan Kosmalski had 25 points and 13 rebounds.J.J. Redick added 18 points for Duke, and Shelden Williams and Sean Dockery had 15 each.

At Lahaina, Hawaii, Raymond Felton made quite a difference for North Carolina.After missing the season-opening loss to Santa Clara because of an NCAA suspension, the junior guard returned to anchor North Carolina's defense in an easy victory over Brigham Young (0-1) in the opening round of the Maui Invitational. The Tar Heels (1-1) will play Tennessee in Tuesday's semifinals.With Felton back at the point, North Carolina opened the game against BYU (0-1) with a 25-3 run and led by as many as 39. Felton finished with six points and seven assists in 26 minutes. Sean May had 18 points and eight rebounds.

At Lahaina, Hawaii, Jeff Horner scored 11 points in a 41/2-minute span of the second half, part of a nine-minute stretch when Iowa held Louisville (1-1) without a field goal in the opening round of the Maui Invitational.Iowa (2-0) will play No. 15 Texas in the semifinals on Tuesday. Horner finished with 18 points and six assists. Pierre Pierce added 16 points for Iowa.Francisco Garcia scored 17 for the Cardinals.

At Lahaina, Hawaii, Texas withstood foul trouble and the 3-point shooting of Chris Reaves.P.J. Tucker had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Longhorns (2-0). Reaves, a junior college transfer, made his first six 3-point attempts, finished 8-for-10 from long range and scored 33 points for the Division II Silverswords (1-1), who dropped to 4-55 in the eight-team tournament they host.