Deacs Battle Against Top-20 Team

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest women's basketball team fell in a tightly-contested home matchup with No. 19 Duke, 60-50, Thursday evening at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Demon Deacons (10-6, 1-4 ACC) were led by a strong defensive effort as the Deacs forced the Blue Devils (14-1, 4-0 ACC) into 19 turnovers, marking the most turnovers Duke has committed in a single game since facing Northwestern on Dec.1. Additionally, Duke's 19 turnovers were the most the Blue Devils had committed in ACC play this season.

Junior guard Jewel Spear led the Demon Deacons offensively with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting, including an explosive 10-point third quarter. The Colony, Texas native has now recorded double-digit points in 13 games this season and leads the team, shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.

Of note coming into Thursday's contest, she ranked 10th in the country with 44 three-point makes while her 2.93 threes per game ranked 18th nationally.

Spear needs just six points on Sunday to tie for 24th on the Wake Forest scoring list and her career total of 194 three-point makes moves her into third in program history.

Elise Williams had another all-around performance Thursday as the sophomore guard tallied 12 points, four rebounds and four steals in the loss. Over the last three games, Williams has recorded 11 steals.

This season, Williams leads the Deacs in assists (57) and steals (23), while ranking second in points per game (9.3).

Senior forward Olivia Summiel finished with a game-high 10 rebounds in addition to five points, marking the third time this season she had recorded double-digit rebounds in a game. The Dayville, Conn., native leads the team with 117 total rebounds and 7.6 rebounds per game. In conference play, she has been even better, posting 8.6 rebounds per game.

Summiel also recorded a block, moving her to 28 total on the season. She came into the game ranked 20th in the country for total blocks and her total is the highest since Ona Udoh had 41 during the 2018-19 season.

There are only a limited number of home games remaining at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum this season. Be sure to claim your spot for exciting ACC matchups at GoDeacs.com/Tickets.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Wake Forest opened the contest on a 5-0 run as Jewel Spear finished a layup and Elise Williams converted an and-one.
Duke then responded with a 5-0 run of its own to tie the contest at the under-five media timeout.
An Alexandria Scruggs free throw, followed by a pair of free throws from Niyah Becker gave the Demon Deacons an 8-5 lead.
- An ensuing pullup jumper by Celeste Taylor of Duke brought the Blue Devils within one, but Wake Forest immediately responded as Becker drained a jump shot 21 seconds later.
Wake Forest owned a 10-9 lead after 10 minutes of play as the Deacs held Duke to only 20 percent shooting splits from the field and beyond the arc.
- The two sides combined for 12 turnovers in the first quarter.
Alyssa Andrews canned a triple from the wing 28 seconds into the second frame on an assist from Spear.
Wake Forest then took a six point lead as Williams drove strong to her right and finished a layup.
- Duke responded with four unanswered to narrow its deficit to two at the 6:52 mark.
The Demon Deacons went on a 6-2 run over the following two minutes to take a 21-15 lead with just under five minutes remaining in the first half.
- The Blue Devils then scored 14 unanswered to take a 29-21 lead.
  - Of note, Duke's 14-0 run took place over a 3:24 span.
The Deacs trailed 32-24 at the halftime break.
- Despite trailing by eight, Wake Forest held Duke to only 37.9 percent shooting from the field in the first half.
The Demon Deacons were led offensively by Williams in the first half as she tallied seven points.
- Andrews and Olivia Summiel also had solid first half performances as they combined for 11 points.
  - Additionally, Summiel logged a game-high eight rebounds during the first 20 minutes of play.
Williams knocked a three from the top of the key to open the second half scoring, narrowing the Demon Deacons' deficit to five.
Spear then finished a layup to cut the Blue Devils' lead to three less than two minutes into the third quarter.
- Over the next several minutes, Spear single-handedly outscored Duke, 6-2.
The Blue Devils owned a 36-35 lead at the under-five media timeout of the third quarter.
The two teams exchanged baskets over the ensuing three minutes as Duke took a 44-41 lead into the fourth quarter.
Despite trailing by three entering the fourth, Wake Forest outscored Duke, 17-12, in the third quarter.
- Defensively, the Demon Deacons forced six Blue Devil tunrovers during the third frame.
  - Of note, the Deacs came into Thursday's contest averaging 19.5 points in the third quarter.
Duke outscored Wake Forest 10-5 over the first 4:30 of the fourth quarter to take a 53-46 lead into the under-five media timeout.
The Demon Deacons were unable to cut into the lead as Duke maintained its seven-point advantage with just over one minute remaining in the contest.
Duke held on for the 60-50 victory.

STANDOUT STAT

Senior forward Olivia Summiel finished the game with 10 rebounds, accounting for 41.6 percent of the Demon Deacons 24 total rebounds in the game.
- Summiel has led Wake Forest in rebounding in six of the last nine games and ranks first on the team with 117 this season.
  - Additionally, Summiel's 7.6 rebounds per game average currently ranks eighth in the ACC.
- Summiel also recorded a block for the seventh consecutive game. She has at least one block in 12 of 16 games this season.
  - She has at least one block in four of five ACC contests.
  - 15 of her 28 blocks this season have come against Power-5 opponents.

FROM GEBBIA
"We're close. We're not quite there yet. I am proud of this group and how hard we played tonight. A couple things that we need to clean up. We forced them to turn the ball over which helped us and we were good overall on the defensive end of the floor. We've continued to shoot free throws better which is encouraging. We were with them the whole game just probably needed a little more on the offensive end tonight. We're going to take a lot of positives out of this but know we still have some areas to grow to get to that next level." - Coach Megan Gebbia

NEXT UP
The Demon Deacons continue their home weekend at LJVM Coliseum, playing against Georgia Tech Sunday at 2 p.m.

For those who cannot attend, the game will air on ACC Network Extra.

Players Mentioned

Alyssa Andrews

Niyah Becker

Alexandria Scruggs

Jewel Spear

Olivia Summiel

Ona Udoh

Elise Williams