Demon Deacons Battle with Clemson in ACC Opener

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – In the first ACC matchup of the 2024-25 campaign, the Wake Forest women's basketball team dropped a tightly-contested matchup, 65-59, to Clemson Sunday afternoon at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Deacs (6-5, 0-1 ACC) finished 22-of-47 (46.8 percent) from the floor Sunday afternoon, the third-highest percentage of the season and best since the win over Winthrop on Nov. 17. Over half of Wake Forest's points came from inside the paint, as the Deacs outscored the Tigers 30-to-20 inside. Of note, Wake Forest is +64 in the paint against their opponents over the last three games.

The Demon Deacons also excelled at the free throw line, as they connected on nine of their 10 attempts (90 percent) for their highest percentage from the stripe this season.

Individually, freshman guard Aurora Sørbye led the team with 12 points on the day for her second-career game with double-digit points. She also hauled in two rebounds and denied two Clemson shots in a career-high 26 minutes off the bench.

Sophomore guard Rylie Theuerkauf posted her seventh double-figure scoring game in the last eight, posting 11 points with a pair of three points and finished 3-for-3 at the free throw line. Of note, Theuerkauf leads the Demon Deacons in scoring this season with 10.2 points per game including eight double-figure games so far this season.

Graduate guard Tamia Jones and redshirt-junior forward Malaya Cowles both added 10 points apiece.

Forcing the Tigers (7-3, 1-0 ACC) into 10 turnovers, Wake Forest forced double-digit turnovers for the 52nd time in the last 53 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024.

How It Happened

After an opening layup from Clemson, the Deacs responded with back-to-back buckets from Conley and Hinds and took a 4-2 lead at the 8:34 mark.
Wake Forest extended the lead to seven with a strong driving layup from Jones followed by a triple from Theuerkauf, which caused the Tigers to take a timeout with 5:43 remaining in the first quarter.
Theuerkauf came back out of the timeout with another three to make it 12-2 at the 5:02 mark.
With four minutes to go in the quarter, Conley extended the lead to 12 with a fast-break layup on an assist from Theuerkauf.
- After the opening possession, Wake Forest held Clemson to 0-of-8 from the floor over a six-minute span during a 14-0 run.
The Tigers ended the first quarter on a 10-2 run as Wake Forest took a 16-12 lead into the second quarter.
- The Deacs shot 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) from the floor in the first quarter and 2-of-4 from three.
Sørbye opened the second quarter with consecutive three-pointers and regained a double-digit advantage for Wake Forest.
After the Tigers responded with a three of their own, Jones knocked down a pair of free throws to make it 24-15 at the 7:24 mark in the second quarter.
Theuerkauf knocked down a jumper in the paint and Jones added four quick points as the Deacs continued to hold a decent lead throughout the quarter.
Sørbye then connected on yet another three-pointer and Jones stayed hot with a driving layup with just seconds remaining in the half.
The Demon Deacons took a 35-23 lead into the break.
- Jones and Sørbye led the team with 10 and 9 points, respectively.
- Over the first 20 minutes, Wake Forest shot 13-of-22 (59.1 percent) as a team from the floor and 5-of-9 (55.6 percent) from beyond-the-arc.
- This marked the third time this season the Deacs held a double-digit lead at halftime, with the first two coming against Queens (+27) and Gardner-Webb (+12).
The Tigers opened the second half on a 14-1 run until Theuerkauf regained the lead for Wake Forest at the 4:03 mark as she went 3-of-3 from the stripe.
Cowles then made it 41-37 following a tough contested bucket in the paint with three-and-a-half minutes remaining in the quarter.
After Clemson tied it at 41-41, Cowles responded with yet another layup through contact following an offensive rebound.
Wake Forest took a 45-44 lead into the fourth quarter after a second-chance layup from Hinds closed out the third-quarter scoring.
Sørbye reached double-digit points for the second time of her young career as she converted an and-one opportunity a minute into the fourth quarter and made it 48-44.
The Tigers took a 53-48 lead with six minutes remaining following a 9-0 run.
Cowles answered with a jumper in the paint, but the Tigers added two more threes on the following possessions.
With under three minutes to go, Cowles became the fourth Demon Deacon to reach double figures as she cut the deficit to 59-52 with a layup.
Conley connected from beyond-the-arc at the 1:20 mark and made it a four-point game.
The Tigers responded with a three of their own on the next possession.
Late layups from Hinds and Conley were not enough for the Deacs as they fell to Clemson, 65-59.

Standout Stats

This season, the Demon Deacons are holding opponents to just 54.4 points per game, moving Wake Forest to 18th nationally and third in the ACC.
Forcing the Tigers into 10 turnovers, Wake Forest forced double-digit turnovers for the 52nd time in the last 53 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024.
- The 53-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.
Through 11 games this season, Wake Forest has totaled 105 steals.
- On the opposite end, Wake Forest has taken care of the basketball, allowing opponents just 63 swipeaways through the first 11 contests.
Freshman guard Aurora Sørbye led the team with 12 points on the day for her second-career game with double-digit points.
- She also hauled in two rebounds and denied two Clemson shots in a career-high 26 minutes off the bench.

From Gebbia
"They wanted it more than us in the second half and it killed us. We had too many mix ups on the defense end of the floor. They finished with 18 second-chance points in the second half which hurt us. We need to do a better job on the glass with effort. We will continue to work on rebounding this week to really get that turned around. We have to be able to put 40 minutes together. We played well in the first half on both ends and everyone was getting involved on offense and we played gritty on the offensive end. We played with the same intensity in the second half and we win this game. Even though we didn't play well in the third we still had a chance in the end and we need to start eliminating mental mistakes late in games." - Megan Gebbia

Up Next
The Demon Deacons are set to close the 2024 calendar year on Dec. 20 when the Deacs host UNC-Greensboro for the final non-conference game of the season.

Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.

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Team Stats

Aurora Sørbye

Rylie Theuerkauf

Malaya Cowles

Tamia Jones

Players Mentioned

Malaya Cowles

Tamia Jones

Rylie Theuerkauf

Wake Forest Athletics