Demon Deacons’ Season Ends in WNIT Second Round

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Despite a comeback surge late in the third quarter, the Wake Forest women's basketball team's season came to an end in the second round of the WNIT, falling 80-63 to Florida inside Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum Monday night.

The Deacs finished the season with 17 wins as Megan Gebbia had the most wins by a first-year head coach and Wake Forest had the most wins in a season since 2015-16. Additionally, it was the first winning season since 2019-20.

On Monday, junior guard Jewel Spear led the team with 25 points on 7-of-19 shooting and 4-of-8 from three in addition to five rebounds. This was the Texas native's second-consecutive 20-point game and her 11th of the season. It also marks the 20th time this season she led the team in scoring. She continued to move up the single-season scoring list, ending the year with 546 points which was the sixth most in program history:

Rank	Player	Points
1.	Dearica Hamby (2013-14)	683
2.	Dearica Hamby (2014-15)	650
3.	Tracy Connor (1992-93)	576
4.	Jewel Spear (2021-22)	567
5.	Ivana Raca (2019-20)	549
6.	Jewel Spear (2022-23)	546

She also continued to climb the three-point single-season ranks, finishing second in program history with 93 threes. He for triples Monday helped her pass her total from last season:

Rank	Player	Year	Threes Made
1.	Cotelia Bond-Young	2004-05	97
2.	Jewel Spear	2022-23	93
3.	Jewel Spear	2021-22	90
4.	Chelsea Douglas	2013-14	86
5.	Cotelia Bond-Young	2005-06	85

Spear goes into her senior year needing just 416 points to break the scoring record and just 26 threes to break the three-point record.

Senior forward Olivia Summiel kept the Demon Deacons in the contest with three three-pointers in the second quarter. She finished with 11 points and a pair of rebounds

For the second-consecutive game, the Deacs finished with three players in double-digits with Spear (25), Summiel (11) and sophomore guard Elise Williams (10).

Senior guard Alexandria Scruggs hauled in a career-high 13 rebounds, including nine offensive, in addition to eight points and three steals. It was her ninth multi-steal game of the season while also adding eight points.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Florida jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Jewel Spear drained a pullup midrange jumper, marking the Deacs' first points of the contest.
Spear then knocked down a pair of free throws and Demeara Hinds finished a layup to pull the Demon Deacons within one at the 3:33 mark.
After Nina Rickards of Florida made a jumper to extend the Gators' lead to three, Spear canned a triple from the right wing to even the ledger at nine.
Wake Forest closed the opening frame on a 6-2 spurt behind four free throws from Spear, taking a 15-11 lead after 10 minutes of action.
- Spear tallied a game-high 11 points in the first quarter, while shooting 6-of-7 from the charity stripe.
  - Of note, Spear's 11 points equaled Florida's scoring output in the first quarter.
The Gators opened the second quarter on a 9-0 run over the opening four minutes of action to force a Demon Deacon timeout.
Coming out of the break in action, Olivia Summiel drained a triple from the right wing to stop the Deacs' scoring drought.
- After Florida went on an ensuing 8-0 run, Summiel knocked down back-to-back trey's to pull Wake Forest within four.
Florida outscored Wake Forest 5-0 over the final three minutes of the half and took a 33-24 lead into the halftime break.
- Alexandria Scruggs tallied a game-high seven rebounds in the first half.
The two sides exchanged field goals over the opening four minutes of the third quarter as the Deacs trailed 41-32 at the 6:00 mark.
- Kaia Harrison and Scruggs combined to account for all eight of the Demon Deacons' points to start the frame.
After an Elise Williams layup brought Wake Forest within seven, Florida scored five unanswered to extend its lead to 12 with just under five minutes remaining in the quarter.
The Demon Deacons responded with an 8-0 run to narrow their deficit to four, forcing a Florida timeout.
- Spear scored seven of Wake Forest's points during the run as she made consecutive layups and canned a deep triple from the left wing.
Florida snapped a three minute scoring drought coming out of the timeout as Rickards knocked down a three and finished a layup to close the third quarter scoring.
Wake Forest trailed 51-42 heading into the final 10 minutes of action.
Florida opened the fourth quarter on a 9-4 run to take a 60-46 lead with just over five minutes left in the contest.
Despite a resilient effort from Wake Forest, the Gators extended their lead to 22 with one minute remaining.
Florida held on over the final 60 seconds to secure the 80-63 victory to advance to the third round of the WNIT.

STANDOUT STAT

Alexandria Scruggs finished the game with a career-high 13 rebounds, crushing her previous high of eight.
- Nine of her 13 rebounds came on the offensive glass, marking the most offensive rebounds by a Demon Deacon this season.

FROM GEBBIA

"This felt like a really frustrating game for us in the sense that we got some really good looks in the first half and couldn't convert. When that happens, it feels like you go into an emergency mode of 'oh no, we have to take the first shot'. That sense of patience wasn't there as much as it should have been. Jewel had to do a lot of scoring today to keep us well within reach. It was not our best, definitely not our best. It's frustrating that the last game of the year is a game in which it felt like a combination of everything we've worked on didn't happen. And as a coach, I take that responsibility that I felt like I didn't have them ready for this game and that's disappointing. From my perspective, the reason these two (Olivia Summiel and Jewel Spear) are sitting here is because they did their roles today. They did what they are capable of doing and they played hard the entire game. I love that they never gave up the entire way. " - head coach Megan Gebbia

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

The Deacs continued to make history in the first season of the Megan Gebbia era as she captured the 17th win, tying her for the most wins by a first-year head coach in program history.
- Additionally, the 17 wins tie the most for the Demon Deacons since the Deacs won 20 games during the 2011-12 season.
Coming off a run to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals, this is the third time in the last four years that the Demon Deacons have reached the quarterfinal round. The senior class for the Deacs is now 6-4 at the tournament during their time at Wake Forest.
- The two wins also match the most wins in the tournament in program history.
- Additionally in three of the last four seasons, Wake Forest has been the highest seed left in the tournament.
  - The Deacs are the only double-digit seed to make the quarterfinal round twice in the last two years and only one other school has done so once.
The Deacs ACC Tournament run included a historic 20-point comeback effort over Florida State and it was the second-largest halftime comeback in ACC Tournament history, holding the Seminoles to just 16.6 percent shooting in the second half to win by double digits.
- The Demon Deacons were led by ACC All-Tournament team honoree junior Jewel Spear, who led the Deacs in scoring in the wins over Virginia and Florida State.
The Demon Deacons season on the court was highlighted by a number of memorable victories including back-to-back home wins over NCAA Tournament teams in Louisville and Miami in late January.
The Deacs made Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum into a fortress this season, finishing the regular season with an 11-4 mark including six wins in ACC play.
- The record at home is the sixth-best winning percentage in program history and if the Deacs are chosen to host they will have the chance to move up that list.
Additionally in non-conference action, Wake Forest went on the road and claimed a win over Minnesota in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge while also grabbing wins over NCAA Tournament qualifier ECU and WNIT qualifiers High Point and Rhode Island.
Individually, Spear led the team in scoring this season, netting 11 20-plus point games.
- She now is in the top 10 in program history in scoring and is just the second player in program history to have 500 or more points in back-to-back seasons, joining Dearica Hamby.

Rank	Player	Career Points
1.	Dearica Hamby (2011-15)	1,801
2.	Jenny Mitchell (1987-91)	1,728
3.	Amy Privette (1983-87)	1,722
4.	Nicole Levesque (1990-94)	1,663
5.	Chelsea Douglas (2010-14)	1,656
6.	Tracy Connor (1992-97)	1,619
7.	Cotelia Bond-Young (2002-06)	1,507
8.	Amber Campbell (2014-18)	1,489
9.	Ivana Raca (2017-21)	1,482
10.	Jewel Spear (2020-Pres.)	1,385

She goes into next season needing 416 points to become the all-time leading scorer in program history

Spear had another historic scoring season, netting 546 points which ranks sixth in program history for a single season:

Rank	Player	Points
1.	Dearica Hamby (2013-14)	683
2.	Dearica Hamby (2014-15)	650
3.	Tracy Connor (1992-93)	576
4.	Jewel Spear (2021-22)	567
5.	Ivana Raca (2019-20)	549
6.	Jewel Spear (2022-23)	546

Her 93 threes this season ranks third in program history and the Deacs 227 threes as a team are the second most in program history.

Rank	Threes Made	Season
1.	275	2004-05
2.	227	2022-23
3.	215	2005-06
4.	195	2021-22
5.	179	2008-09

Spear, who was a preseason All-ACC selection, was also named to the All-ACC Second Team heading into the tournament, marking the second-straight year she has been named as an All-ACC honoree.
Olivia Summiel recorded one block in the season finale, finishing the season with 46 total blocks. Going into Monday's game against Florida, Summiel ranked 61st nationally in total blocks on the season and her total is the most by a Demon Deacon since the 2015-16 season when Milan Quinn had 49 blocks.
- Additionally, Summiel is now fourth in program history in blocks in a single season:

Rank	Player	Year	Total Blocks
1.	Lisa Dodd	1987-88	60
2.	Mekia Valentine	2006-07	50
3.	Milan Quinn	2015-16	49
4.	Olivia Summiel	2022-23	46
5.	Meki Valentine	2007-08	44

Her 1.41 blocks per game also ranked third in the ACC and 79th nationally coming into Monday.
As a team, the Deacs blocked 3.7 shots per game which was close to a school record and ranks 84th nationally. The school record was set in 2010-11 when that squad averaged 4.3 blocks per game. Additionally, Wake Forest's 123 blocks this season ranked in the top five in Demon Deacon single-season history, finishing as the fourth-highest total in program history:

Rank	Block Total	Season
1.	136	2010-11
2.	132	2015-16
3.	130	2017-18
4.	123	2022-23
5.	118	2011-12

Team Stats

Jewel Spear

Olivia Summiel

Elise Williams

Alexandria Scruggs

Players Mentioned

Kaia Harrison

Demeara Hinds

Ivana Raca

Alexandria Scruggs

Jewel Spear

Olivia Summiel

Elise Williams

Players Mentioned

Kaia Harrison

Demeara Hinds

Ivana Raca

Alexandria Scruggs

Jewel Spear

Olivia Summiel

Elise Williams

Wake Forest Athletics