Spear Earns ACC All-Tournament Honors
3/5/2023 3:43:00 PM | Women's Basketball
This is the second time the junior has earned All-Tournament honors, leading the Deacs in scoring in wins over Virginia and Florida State.
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Wake Forest women's basketball junior guard Jewel Spear was named to the ACC All-Tournament team, as announced by the league Sunday afternoon.
The Colony, Texas native was named to the ACC All-Tournament Second Team after leading the Deacs in scoring in victories over Virginia and Florida State. This is the second time in her career that she has been named to the All-Tournament Team, earning honors as a freshman in 2021.
In the opening round game against Virginia, Spear netted a team-best 19 points with eight of her points coming in the third quarter where Wake Forest helped take control of the game for good en route to an 11-point first round victory. She also had two steals and two assists to go along with three rebounds. This marked the fourth-straight season the Demon Deacons advanced in the ACC Tournament.
Wake Forest and Spear advanced to the second round where they faced No. 5 seed Florida State. At halftime, the Deacs trailed by 18 points and Spear was held without a point in the opening 20 minutes of action. That quickly changed in the third quarter. Trailing by 20 points with nine minutes remaining in the third, a three from Spear helped spark the comeback. She netted 11 points in the quarter and the Demon Deacons outscored Florida State 29-8 including an 18-0 run to end the third as the Deacs took a three-point lead into the final frame.
Spear continued to lead the scoring effort in the fourth, knocking down a pair of threes to help extend the lead to 11 points and the run to 26-0. Wake Forest led the rest of the way, winning 65-54 and helping earn the first Quad-1 win of the season as the Seminoles were in the top 20 nationally in NET.
The Deacs advanced to the quarterfinals for the third time in the last four years and the second time during Spear's three seasons. They faced No. 4 seed Louisville where Spear again helped shoulder the scoring load. With 15 points in the defeat on Friday, the Colony, Texas native now has 133 points in the tournament in her three seasons at Wake Forest.
Over the past three seasons, Spear has averaged 18.8 points per game in the ACC tournament in six games. Additionally, she is averaging 22.5 points per game in wins, scoring 19 or more points in all four victories.
