Wake Forest University
USC Upstate
Wake Women Set Back Spartans 58-51 in Season Opener
11/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2007
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest women's basketball team opened the season with a 58-51 victory over USC Upstate on Tuesday night at Joel Coliseum.
The Demon Deacons now stand at 1-0 in the sapling stages of the season while the Spartans are 0-2 in their first year playing under Division I status.
Junior Corinne Groves put up 15 points for the Deacons and went 3-4 from the charity stripe. The forward out of Black Mountain, N.C., also pulled down eight boards during her 23 minutes of play.
Groves was the only Wake athlete that didn't commit a turnover during the opening contest, a bittersweet honor for the six-foot-three-inch Deacon. Both teams got into trouble on fumbled possessions, with the Spartans forfeiting control 26 times while Deacs posted 21 turnovers.
"We have got to learn to value to the ball," Head Coach Mike Petersen said.
"There is no way to move forward with that many turnovers. It's certainly something we are going to have to improve on."
Turnovers aside, the Deacons had a solid night on the boards, picking up 48 rebounds to the Spartans' 36. Alex Tchangoue led the charge with 11 followed by young guns Courteney Morris and Kem Wilson who both had eight.
Tiffany Roulhac's defensive grab five minutes into the contest kicked off a 10-0 Demon Deacon run, giving Wake Forest its first substantial lead of the game.
Freshman Camille Collier landed a 3-pointer after Roulhac's recovery to put Wake up 11-7. Groves then nailed a jumper and followed up by drawing a Spartan foul on the next Demon Deacon possession to give Wake a 15-7 lead with a couple of made free throws. Sophomore guard Courtney Morris capped off the run with a deep 3 from the right side.
The Spartans cut Wake Forest's lead to six with a little under six minutes to go in the first half when Tiffany Whiting landed a 3 and Oceana Jackson picked up another bucket at the free throw line. But the Deacons took advantage of four more USC Upstate turnovers to stretch the lead to 10 at the half.
Within the first three minutes of the second half the Deacons built up a 12-point lead that Spartan's quickly chipped down to a five-point margin.
The Deacons turned it on with 12:46 to go and hit three consecutive 3-pointers, with Collier taking the first and Brown putting up the last two buckets to help set the largest Deacon lead of the game at 19 points with five minutes left in regulation.
Five turnovers in the last minutes of the contest allowed the Spartans to set the final mark at 58-51.
"We got that nice lead and then we stopped playing," Petersen said. "We can't let the scoreboard dictate how we play."
The Demon Deacons will return to the Joel on Thursday to host Charlotte at 7 p.m. before hitting the road to play James Madison in Harrisonburg, Va. on Sunday at 2 p.m.
