Wake Forest Drops First of the Season at Villanova

VILLANOVA, Pa. – After winning the first two games of the week over Queens and Charlotte, the Wake Forest women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season, 64-56 against Villanova Sunday afternoon in Finneran Pavilion.

The Demon Deacons (2-1, 0-0 ACC) jumped out to a strong start, scoring the first 11 points of the game and led by as much as 13 points over the Wildcats (1-0, 0-0 Big East) in the first quarter.

With the help of pressure, the Demon Deacons got the deficit within six points in the final minute, as graduate transfer guard Tamia Jones scored three-consecutive baskets over an eight-second span. However, the Deacs were unable to overcome the deficit.

Defensively, the Demon Deacons forced double-digit turnovers for the 45th time in the last 46 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024. The 46-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.

After dropping 15 against Queens and 12 against Charlotte in her first two games as a Deac, Jones tallied a career-high 19 points and fell just one rebound shy of a double-double in a breakout performance.

Her 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting led the Demon Deacons on Sunday, as well as her career-high nine rebounds. Jones also added three assists and a pair of steals.

Senior guard Elise Williams finished the afternoon with 11 points, her second double-figure game in three games this season. She now has 1,098 career points and is one point away from passing Sicily Ray (2008-12) for 25th on the all-time list.

Williams also had seven rebounds in the loss. The Deacs also had a large advantage on the glass, finishing +11, grabbing 38 boards including nine offensive rebounds that led to 12 second-chance points.

Wake Forest was also strong at the line Sunday afternoon, connecting on the first six attempts of the game and finishing 10-of-12 at the stripe (83.3 pct.) which was a season-high in percentage.

How It Happened

After getting a stop on the defensive end, Wake Forest got on the board first as Jones found Cowles for a hookshot just 19 seconds in.
Jones then added a couple of points of her own as she drew a foul and went 2-for-2 from the line.
Conley made it 6-0 Wake Forest with her first bucket of the afternoon as Jones recorded her second assist at the 7:20 mark.
A triple from Williams and a driving layup by Andrews capped off an 11-0 run to open the contest.
Excellent team defense held Villanova scoreless for the first 7:34 of game time.
Sørbye got on the board with a layup and Theuerkauf went 2-for-2 from the stripe to make it 17-4 with just over a minute to go in the first quarter.
Villanova closed out the frame with back-to-back layups as Wake Forest entered the second quarter with a nine-point lead, 17-8.
Jones picked off a pass and knocked down a jumper on the other end at the 6:46 mark to end Villanova's nine-point run.
Williams made it 21-14 Deacs with a tip-in layup with four minutes remaining in the half.
Theuerkauf immediately responded to a pair of Wildcat free throws with a layup to maintain the seven-point advantage.
Villanova cut the deficit to two with 1:37 to go in the second quarter before the two teams traded free throws in the final minute, as Wake Forest went into the locker room with a 25-23 lead.
- Jones led the Deacs with six points, five rebounds and two assists in the first half.
- Defensively, Wake Forest held Villanova to just 7-of-27 (25.9) from the floor and 1-of-9 (11.1) from three over the first 20 minutes.
- Wake Forest was also a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the first 20 minutes.
After finding Williams for a layup to open the second-half scoring, Jones drained a three on the following possession.
Hinds put the Deacs up seven with a tip-in layup at the 8:18 mark.
Jones became the first Deac to reach double-digit scoring as she finished a driving layup to make it 34-27
Villanova took its first lead of the afternoon with just under two minutes to go in the third quarter at 38-37.
The two teams traded layups and free throws over the final 1:26 of the quarter, as the Wildcats went into the fourth with a 42-41 advantage.
Cowles tied it up from the line 34 seconds in to the fourth quarter,
After back-to-back buckets by the Wildcats, Hinds responded with a second-chance hookshot.
Williams recorded a steal and found Jones for a layup on the other end at the 6:23 mark, which made it 46-48.
The Wildcats went on an 8-0 run until Williams ended it with a layup assisted by Theuerkauf with four minutes remaining.
Villanova extended its lead to 60-48 with less than two minutes to go.
A jumper from Conley followed by three-consecutive baskets from Jones cut the deficit to six with 27 seconds left, but the Wildcats connected on their free throws and saw out the 64-56 victory.

Standout Stats

This season, the Demon Deacons are holding opponents to just 48.3 points per game which ranked 24th in the country and third in ACC coming into the contest.
- The Demon Deacons forced double-digit turnovers for the 45th time in the last 46 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024.
  - The 46-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.
Wake Forest finished the game, shooting a season-best 83.3 percent from the charity stripe (10-of-12 FT).
Through three games, the Deacs have won the rebounding battle in two of three games, finishing +11 on the glass on Sunday afternoon.
- Wake Forest's nine offensive rebounds led to 12 second-chance points.
- Five Deacs posted five or more rebounds in the game:
  - Jones (9)
  - Williams (7)
  - Hinds (7)
  - Andrews (5)
  - Cowles (5)
After dropping 15 against Queens and 12 against Charlotte in her first two games as a Deac, graduate transfer Tamia Jones tallied a career-high 19 points and fell just one rebound shy of a double-double in a breakout performance.
- Her 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting led the Demon Deacons on Sunday, as well as her career-high nine rebounds.
- Jones also added three assists and a pair of steals.

From Gebbia
"We have to get better on some things on the defensive end, especially on our penetration keys. We also had some early foul trouble that hurt us down the stretch and they really cut into the lead in the second quarter. We have to learn and get better from this one. Offensively, there are some things especially around the rim to improve on. We executed parts of the game plan and probably should have pressed earlier in the game. Today was a tough game because it was our third of the week but we still mentally made some mistakes. This environment and playing on the road can be hard and this experience will help us come conference play. We are ahead right now then where we were last year but now we have to raise the standard and continue to improve throughout the rest of non-conference play." - Megan Gebbia

Up Next
After being on the road the last two games, the Demon Deacons are back at home on Nov. 17 when they play host to Wintrop.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.

Next Event

Team Stats

Tamia Jones

Elise Williams

Demeara Hinds

Rylie Theuerkauf

Players Mentioned

Tamia Jones

Elise Williams

Wake Forest Athletics