Wake Forest University
7-6,4-5ACC
Louisville
14-0,7-0ACC
Deacs Drop Home Thriller Versus Top-Ranked Louisville
1/24/2021 5:13:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Behind a tough defense performance, Wake Forest falls at home by two to the No. 1 team in the country.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The Wake Forest women's basketball team dropped a thrilling contest against the No. 1 Louisville Cardinals, 65-63, inside the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon.
The back and forth contest saw the lead change sides on 10 occasions, including four times over the final 59 seconds of play.
Down three with 3:27 remaining, Wake Forest (7-6, 4-5 ACC) scored four straight points to regain a 61-60 lead with 59 seconds left. Following a Louisville (14-0, 7-0 ACC) bucket, senior Ivana Raca connected on a pair of free throws to give the Deacs a one-point advantage with just 17 seconds left. Louisville came out of a timeout and scored the final points of the game after a successful and-one by Evans.
The Deacs held the Cardinals to a season-low 65 points and just 23-of-58 from the field. Louisville entered Sunday's contest averaging 84.4 points per game on 49-percent shooting.
Wake Forest was able to control the game thanks to their rebounding advantage, outrebounding the Cardinals by a tally of 43-32 and grabbing 11 more offensive boards than their ACC foe.
Senior Gina Conti led Wake Forest with 13 points as four Deacs would reach double-figures. Conti also dished out two assists and is now just one away from moving into fifth on Wake Forest's all-time career assist list.
Raca continued to produce stellar performances at home, recording her fourth double-double at home this season as the Belgrade, Serbia native scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Junior Christina Morra chipped in 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting, while sophomore Alexandria Scruggs tallied 10 points and five rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Wake Forest jumped out to an early 4-3 lead at the 8:24 mark thanks to layups from Jewel Spear and Gina Conti.
- Louisville produced a 7-0 run to hold a 10-4 advantage at the under five timeout.
- Despite being down 14-6, Wake battled back behind strong defense to cut the deficit to six points (16-10) at the end of the first quarter.
- Christina Morra connected on back-to-back baskets before Anaia Hoard scored a layup that closed Louisville's lead to 21-18 with 5:58 remaining in the half.
- A three-pointer from Hoard with under four minutes remaining knotted the contest at 23.
- Wake Forest and Louisville continued to trade baskets until the end of the half, with Olivia Summiel making a layup as the first half buzzer sounded to make it a one possession game (30-28) going into intermission.
- The Deacs' defense held the Cardinals to their lowest scoring half of the season (previous low was 31 on Jan. 1 versus Northern Kentucky) as Louisville shot just 10-of-29 from the field in the first half.
- Additionally, Wake Forest held a 26-17 advantage on the boards after the opening 20 minutes of play. Half of those boards were on the offensive glass, while the Cardinals only possessed six offensive rebounds.
- Morra led Wake Forest with seven first half points on 3-of-6 shooting.
- The Deacs regained the lead, 32-30, for the first time since the opening minutes of the game after a layup from Christina Morra at the 9:07 mark in the third quarter.
- Wake opened the second half on an 11-6 run, led by Conti's five points.
- Ivana Raca pushed Wake Forest's lead back to three points with less than three minutes left in the period after converting on a fastbreak layup following a steal by the senior.
- Conti knocked down a jumper with 1:55 remaining in the third quarter to give Wake Forest a 49-44 lead.
- The Deacs continued to hold a sizable advantage (20-10) over the Cardinals on the offensive glass after 30 minutes of play. Overall, Wake Forest outrebounded Louisville 36-26 heading into the fourth.
- Back-to-back layups from Conti and Alexandria Scruggs increased the Deacs' lead to 55-46, their largest of the game.
- The Cardinals countered with a 14-2 run to retake the lead with 3:27 to go.
- Wake Forest forced a shot clock violation on Louisville with 1:49 remaining to regain possession of the ball down three points.
- Two free throws from Raca allowed Wake to regain the lead with 57 seconds left.
- With 16.7 seconds on the clock, Raca drove inside and finished strong to give the Deacs a one-point lead.
- With Wake down two, Raca narrowly missed a three-point jumper at the buzzer that would have given the Deacs the victory.
STANDOUT STAT
Wake Forest held Louisville to a season-low 65 points, nearly 20 points lower than its 84.4 average. Additionally, the Demon Deacons held the high-powered Cardinals offense to a season-low 39.7 percent shooting from the field (23-of-58).
The Deacs also held ACC Freshman of the Year candidate Haliey Van Lith to just five points on 2-of-7 from the field while forcing her to turn the ball over five times in the game.
FROM HOOVER
"I am so proud of how hard we played. We talked about being mentally and physically tough no matter what happened. If we hit some adversity, we just stayed solid through it while being tough and withstanding it. Tonight, we felt like we could score against them if we just handled their pressure. They are a physical team, they pressure you, defensively more than anyone in our league, in a man-to-man pressure. We did a good job offensively moving the ball and trying to find open players. We did not shoot the ball particularly well. Our free throw shooting, which is a strength, or it had been, has really become an Achilles heel for this team. You look at that and that makes me sick, to see you had No. 1 in the country beaten, missed 12 free throws, shot 50 percent. You just can not do that."
NEXT UP
The Deacs continue their homestand, playing host to Florida State on Thursday, Jan. 28, in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. It marks the third of four consecutive home contests.
The game will tip off at 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.
