Wake Forest Battles No. 18 California

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Despite forcing the most turnovers in the Megan Gebbia era with a season-high 28 takeaways, the Wake Forest women's basketball team fell to No. 18 Cal, 67-55, Sunday afternoon inside Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The 28 turnovers were the most since at least the 2017-18 season, as Wake Forest (7-11, 0-7 ACC) converted those turnovers into 27 points while allowing the Golden Bears (17-3, 5-2 ACC) just five points off turnovers.

Wake Forest forced double-digit turnovers for the 58th time in the last 59 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024. The 59-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.

Through 18 games this season, Wake Forest has totaled 176 steals including tying the second-most this season with 13 on Sunday. The 13 swipes marks the 10th time Wake Forest has recorded 10 or more steals in a game this year.

The Demon Deacons were led by senior guard Elise Williams, who finished the contest with 15 points and added a trio of rebounds, assists and steals. Senior Demeara Hinds and sophomore Rylie Theuerkauf joined Williams in double figures with 10 points apiece.

Williams and Theuerkauf finished in double-figures for the 10th time this season while the 10-point performance for Hinds marked her eighth of the year.

With Williams' three steals in the game, she has now moved into the top 10 in program history and is the only player in the history of the program to rank in the top 10 in assists, steals, threes made and free throw percentage.

How It Happened

A steal by redshirt senior Demeara Hinds led to a layup on the other end for Hinds to give Wake Forest the first points of the game.
A great find from freshman Auroya Sørbye to sophomore Madisyn Jordan pushed the Deacs' lead to 6-0.
Wake Forest held Cal without a field goal over the first 5:05 to hold onto an 8-2 advantage at the first media timeout.
Four-straight points from guard Elise Williams pushed the lead back out to 14-10 near the end of the first quarter.
The Golden Bears' first three of the quarter trimmed the advantage to 14-13 through 10 minutes of play.
Williams knocked down a shot from beyond the arc off an assist from senior Raegyn Conley to open the scoring in the second quarter and push the Wake advantage to 17-13.
An 8-1 run from Cal going into the second quarter media break gave the visitors its largest lead of the afternoon at 26-20.
Wake Forest trailed at the half, 32-24.
Sophomore Rylie Theuerkauf made a great move to the basket to open the scoring in the second half.
Cal countered with a 7-0 run to stretch their lead to 13 at the media timeout.
Williams was the first Demon Deacon to reach double figures with a midrange jumper on the left of the key to cut into the deficit.
A triple from Jordan off a great pass from Hinds cut the Cal lead to single digits as Wake continued to fight back.
Cal led 53-43 going into the final 10 minutes of play.
Hinds joined Williams in double-digit scoring with a free-throw at the 7:29 mark in the fourth.
Wake Forest closed the game on a 7-0 run but ultimately fell to Cal, 67-55.

Standout Stats

Forcing the Golden Bears into 28 turnovers, Wake Forest forced double-digit turnovers for the 59th time in the last 60 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024.
- The 59-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.
- Through 18 games this season, Wake Forest has totaled 176 steals including 13 on Sunday which was the 11th time this season Wake Forest has recorded 10 or more steals in a game.
  - The 13 steals mark the most in conference play so far this season as four Demon Deacons had two or more steals on Sunday.
- The 28 turnovers forced was the most forced in a single-game this season for the Deacs. Additionally, it was the second-highest turnover game of the season for the nationally-ranked Bears. The only game where they had more turnovers came on Thursday at No. 14 Duke when Cal turned it over 31 times.
The Demon Deacons had a distinct advantage in points off turnovers as Wake Forest owned a 27-5 points off turnover advantage.
- The Deacs turned it over just 12 times on Sunday afternoon and finished with an even assist-to-turnover ratio.
  - This is the second-straight game that Wake Forest has had an even or better assist-to-turnover ratio.
Williams and Theuerkauf finished in double-figures for the 10th time this season while the 10-point performance for Hinds marked her eighth of the year.

From Gebbia
"We have to put this game behind us. We had some really good things, forcing turnovers and getting points off those but we didn't play our best game offensively. This is a top five team in the league and we stayed in it and engaged for the whole game. We made poor decisions on shot selection. We had some errors in terms of the defensive scout that led to some open threes. There was an opportunity to take this game on our home floor but we had too many spurts of not being able to score to stay close to them late. We have had one quarter over the last couple where we have lost the last couple games and today was the second quarter. We have to do a couple more little things to stop those big runs. We have done a good job of taking care of the basketball the last couple of games and we see the progress coming. We have a big one coming Thursday with our first in-state Big-4 game. I know our group is excited to get after it this week as we prepare for North Carolina." - Megan Gebbia

Up Next
The Demon Deacons have their first Big-4 battle scheduled for Thursday night when the Deacs travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. for a matchup with North Carolina.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.

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Team Stats

Elise Williams

Rylie Theuerkauf

Demeara Hinds

Raegyn Conley

Players Mentioned

Raegyn Conley

Demeara Hinds

Madisyn Jordan

Rylie Theuerkauf

Elise Williams

Wake Forest Athletics