Deacs Travel South to Play Miami Sunday

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – After recording multiple wins in the last five contests, the Wake Forest women's basketball team flies to Miami for a Sunday afternoon meeting at Watsco Center.

The Deacs (11-7, 2-5 ACC) will look to bounce back after falling at No. 7 Notre Dame on Thursday. The past two weeks the Demon Deacons have finished the week 1-1 and if they do so again this week Wake Forest will earn its first road conference win of the season. Over the last five games, sophomore Elise Williams has been playing some of her best basketball, reaching double figures in each game and is now near double figures for the season at 9.8 points per game. She has also been nearly perfect from the free throw line, knocking down 15-of-17 attempts (88.2 percent).

The Hurricanes (11-6, 4-2 ACC) are riding high, posting four consecutive wins including victories over No. 9 Virginia Tech and No. 22 North Carolina. The Hurricanes go into the game on Sunday ranked 38th in the nation and second in the ACC in steals per game, averaging 10.2 steals per game. Miami also is second in the ACC in forcing turnovers as their 19.59 per game also ranks 44th nationally. On the offensive end of the floor, the Canes are led by transfer guard Haley Cavinder who is averaging 13.2 points per game while also knocking down 43 percent of her three-point attempts.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. (ET) at Watsco Center. For those not at the arena, fans can tune in to ACC Network Extra. A live stats feed can be found here.

Fans can follow along via the Demon Deacons Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts (@WakeWBB).

TOP-50 DEFENSE

Through 18 games this season, the Demon Deacons have done a stellar job of holding their opponents down in shooting and scoring. The Deacs have held their opponents to an average of 57.6 points allowed per game, ranking 48th nationally and third in the ACC.

This is a massive improvement in the rankings from a season ago when the Deacs ended the year ranked 164th nationally and ninth in the ACC in the category at 63.0 points per game.

Wake Forest has held their opponents to just 37.1 percent shooting from the field and just 28.6 percent shooting from behind the arc. The opponent shooting percentage ranks 65th in the nation and the Deacs also rank 61st with 4.2 blocks per game. The Deacs achieve a block on 10.2 percent of possessions this season, the third-highest rate in the Her Hoops Stats era (2009-10 to present).

Over the last 13 games, the Demon Deacons have been playing their best defense of the season, holding 11 of 13 opponents to 61 points or less and six opponents in that stretch to less than 55 points.

Over the last five ACC games, Wake Forest has forced 16.6 turnovers including 20 in the win over Pitt and 19 against Duke on Thursday.

LAST TIME

Wake Forest at No. 7 Notre Dame (Jan. 12)

Result: L, 86-47

Williams recorded her 10th double-figure scoring game of the season. This is the fifth consecutive for the sophomore guard and five of her 10 double-figure games have come in conference play this season. She also led the way in the assist column, totaling three helpers.
Senior guard Kaia Harrison also had a strong game for the Demon Deacons, posting 10 points with most coming in transition. She also led the team in rebounds, tallying six in the loss. Senior forward Olivia Summiel totaled five rebounds in the defeat to go along with seven points.

SERIES HISTORY

Versus Miami (FL)

Series: Miami leads 16-11

Last: Jan. 27, 2022

Result: L, 66-59

The Demon Deacons were led by a career-high performance from junior forward Olivia Summiel, netting 14 points in the defeat to the Hurricanes on 6-of-10 shooting from the field.
- Summiel also grabbed six rebounds while also adding a pair of assists and a block.
Sophomore guard Jewel Spear equaled that effort with 14 points of her own, including hitting four threes.

MAY I ASSIST YOU

Under head coach Megan Gebbia, the Demon Deacons have seen a huge increase in number of assists and percentage of assists on made baskets. Wake Forest currently ranks in the 92nd percentile country, assisting on 63.4 percent of made baskets versus a season ago where their 45.0 percent of assists on made baskets ranked in the 4th percentile in the country.

The Demon Deacons had their best game in terms of assisting the basketball in over three seasons as the 23 assists in the win over Longwood marked the most since Nov. 8, 2019 against College of Charleston. Additionally, sophomore guard Elise Williams tied her career-best with eight helpers in the victory. In total, seven Demon Deacons finished the night with at least one assist including five from guard Kaia Harrison and four from guard Jewel Spear.

Elise Williams' 66 assists this season ranks 88th in the country and sixth in the ACC.

1,000 AND COUNTING

Junior guard Jewel Spear reached a career milestone in the victory over Charlotte on Dec. 11 as she became the 30th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point club, totaling 17 points. She becomes the first Wake Forest player to join the 1,000-point club since 2020-21.

She continues to climb the rankings as she moved into 25th on Sunday. She needs one point to tie Secily Ray (2008-12) for 24th and 12 points to tie Raeanna Mulholland (1993-97):

Rank	Player	Career Points
23.	Raeanna Mulholland (1993-97)	1,110
24.	Secily Ray (2008-12)	1,099
25.	Jewel Spear (2020-Pres.)	1,098
26.	Ariel Stephenson (2015-19)	1,079
27.	Tonia Brown (2000-04)	1,073
28.	Erin Ferrell (2001-05)	1,044
29.	Gina Conti (2018-21)	1,037
30.	Barbara Buchanan (1980-1984)	1,023

Additionally, Spear went into the year with a chance to break the all-time threes record in program history and moved into the top three on Thursday and will become just the third player in program history to reach 200 threes with five more threes:

Rank	Player	Career Threes
1.	Cotelia Bond Young (2003-06)	267
2.	Chelsea Douglas (2010-14)	257
3.	Jewel Spear (2020-Pres.)	195
4.	Nicole Levesque (1991-94)	193
5.	Heidi Coleman (1995-99)	191
6.	Lakevia Boykin (2009-13)	167

OWNING THE ARC

The trio of senior Olivia Summiel, junior Jewel Spear and sophomore Elise Williams has been shooting the basketball from behind the arc at high clips. They have combined to knock down 88-of-235 attempts from distance or 37.4 percent. Spear has hit 47-of-120 (39.2 percent), Summiel has knocked down 21-of-57 (36.8 percent) and Williams has hit 20-of-58 (34.5 percent).

Spear leads the conference with 47 three pointers made (16th nationally) and 2.76 threes made per game (32nd nationally).

On the defensive side of the floor, Wake Forest is limiting opponents to just 28.6 percent shooting from behind the arc, ranking in the top 100 in the country.

The Demon Deacons have been one of the best teams in the ACC at shooting the three-point shot so far this season, knocking down 6.8 threes per game over their first 18 games. This also ranks 114th nationally:

Rank	Team	Threes Made Per Game
1.	Virginia Tech	7.9
2.	Florida St.	7.7
3.	Wake Forest	6.7
T4.	Clemson	6.5
T4.	NC State	6.5
T4.	Miami	6.5

BLOCKAGE

Olivia Summiel recorded another block against Georgia Tech Sunday. She now ranks 30th nationally with 29 blocks on the season and her total already is the most by a Demon Deacon since the 2018-19 season when Ona Udoh had 41 blocks for the season.

Her 1.66 blocks per game also rank third in the ACC and 48th nationally.

As a team, the Deacs have blocked 4.2 shots per game which is close to a school record and ranks 61st nationally. The school record was set in 2010-11 when that squad averaged 4.3 blocks per game.

UP NEXT

After seven days off, the Demon Deacons conclude their three-game road stretch on Sunday when the Deacs make the short trip to Blacksburg, Va. to face Virginia Tech. Tipoff for the road test is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Cassell Coliseum.

For those who cannot attend, the game will air on Regional Sports Networks.

Wake Forest Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Gina Conti

Kaia Harrison

Jewel Spear

Olivia Summiel

Ona Udoh

Elise Williams

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