Wake Forest University
North Carolina
Deacs Storm Past Tar Heels 75-63
1/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeWBB)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest women's basketball jumped out to a double-digit lead early in the second quarter and never looked back on the way to beating North Carolina 75-63 on Thursday night in ACC action at LJVM Coliseum.
The victory is Wake Forest's first over the Tar Heels since Jan. 26, 2004, a span of 13 games. Overall, Wake Forest improves to 10-9 on the season and snapped its five-game losing streak to open conference play as the Deacs are now 1-5 in the ACC. With the loss, North Carolina falls to 12-9 overall and 2-4 in the ACC. The Tar Heels won each of their first two games in conference action but have now dropped four straight.
Wake Forest started the game with an 11-4 run, fueled by seven points from Elisa Penna. After extending the lead to 17-9, North Carolina cut into the Wake Forest advantage and the Deacs took a four-point lead to the second quarter.
After North Carolina pulled within two to start the second quarter, Wake Forest went on a 10-0 run over the next 2:52 with contributions from four different players to lead 26-16. Though the Tar Heels pulled within nine after a three pointer by Stephanie Watts, Keyonna Allen responded with a layup to put the Deacs up 11 at 34-23. From there, Wake Forest never allowed North Carolina to cut the lead to single digits again with the Demon Deacons leading by as many as 18 on multiple occasions in the second half.
Down the stretch, North Carolina did cut the lead down to 10 points with less than two minutes to play, but the Deacs kept the Tar Heels at bay throughout as Wake Forest never trailed in the contest, leading for all but eight seconds of game action.
Penna led Wake Forest with a career-high 18 points. She also tied her career-high with three assists. Ariel Stephenson posted 16 points and Ataijah Taylor finished two points off her career-high with 13 points to go with five assists. Jill Brunori pulled down a season-high 11 rebounds while adding six points and five assists in 29 minutes. The Deacs were big on the boards as Milan Quinn and Kandice Ball earned 10 rebounds apiece as Wake Forest had three players with double-figure rebounds. All eight Wake Forest players that saw action on the evening scored at least four points.
UNC was led by 24 points and 13 rebounds by Stephanie Watts and an 18-point night from Jamie Cherry. While Destinee Walker finished with eight points, only three other players scored in the contest and none of them scored more than five.
Up next, Wake Forest heads back on the road for a Sunday afternoon contest against Boston College. First tip at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, is set for 1 p.m.
