Demon Deacons Drop Road Contest at Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In the first contest of the calendar year, the Wake Forest women's basketball team dropped a 69-46 decision at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va.

The Deacs (7-6, 0-2 ACC) were led by a career-high effort from senior guard Raegyn Conley as she finished the night with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting including a career-best four threes made in the game.

Conley was crucial for the Demon Deacons in the first half, scoring a team-high 11 in the first 20 minutes including three triples. This helped the Deacs keep the game close at halftime as they were only trailing by two points coming out of the locker room.

On the defensive end, Wake Forest forced the Cavaliers (9-6, 1-2 ACC) to 20 turnovers on the night. This marked the fourth time this season that Wake Forest forced 20-or-more turnovers and first since Nov. 20 against George Mason.

Graduate guard Tamia Jones tallied a career-high eight assists in addition to four points and two steals. Jones leads the team with 42 total assists through 13 games this season (3.2/game). As a team, Wake Forest assisted on 13 of its 17 made baskets (76 percent) against Virginia. For the season, the Deacs have recorded 178 assists to 283 made field goals (63 percent) over the first 13 games.

How It Happened

After Virginia jumped out to an 11-3 lead, Theuerkauf made the first field goal of the contest for the Deacs with a driving layup at the 4:02 mark in the first quarter.
The Demon Deacons closed the opening frame with a tip-in from Hinds and a last-second Conley layup following a steal from Jones.
The Demon Deacons entered the second quarter trailing, 18-9.
Conley opened the second quarter with two quick three-pointers and cut the deficit to 20-15 as Virginia was forced into a timeout.
- She stayed hot and knocked down yet another triple at the 6:39 mark as Wake Forest pulled to within two points.
After a couple of baskets from the Cavaliers, Jones added a three of her own to make it 24-21 with three minutes remaining in the first half.
Hinds closed the half with a tip-in layup as Wake Forest went into the locker room trailing 25-23.
- Conley's 11 points led the team over the first 20 minutes, while Jones finished the half with four points, four assists and two steals.
Wake Forest's second-half scoring opened with Rylie Theuerkauf connecting from beyond-the-arc followed by a driving layup as she kept the Deacs within a basket.
Cowles made a layup and knocked down a free throw as Wake Forest faced a 34-31 deficit with 5:36 to go in the third.
With just over a minute remaining in the quarter, Cowles ended a 12-0 Cavalier run with a second-chance layup.
Hinds closed the third quarter with another second-chance basket for the Deacs.
Virginia led Wake Forest, 46-35, at the end of the third quarter.
Conley converted an and-one after a steal from Hinds 30 seconds into the fourth quarter.
- She came back two minutes later with her fourth three-pointer of the game.
Hinds joined Conely in double-digits as she knocked down a free throw and finished a layup at the rim with just under five minutes remaining.
With two minutes left, Cowles ended a Virginia run with a jumper off a Conley assist.
The Cavaliers defeated the Deacs, 69-46.

Standout Stats

Senior guard Raegyn Conley finished the night with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting including a career-best four threes made in the game.
Tamia Jones tallied a career-high eight assists in addition to four points and two steals.
- Jones leads the team with 42 total assists through 13 games this season (3.2/game).
Forcing the Cavaliers into 20 turnovers, Wake Forest forced double-digit turnovers for the 54th time in the last 55 games, with the lone game coming against Syracuse on Jan. 11, 2024.
- This marked the fourth time this season that Wake Forest forced 20-or-more turnovers and first since Nov. 20 against George Mason.
- The 55-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.

From Gebbia
"We needed better effort to close out the game and we are better than what we showed tonight. There were some breakdowns defensively that let this one go from a close game at halftime to how this game finished. We played well enough to win in the first half, but we just didn't execute the way we are capable of in the second half. Raegyn really stepped up for us today offensively with a career-high 17 points and Tamia did a great job finding people in scoring positions, finishing with a career-high eight assists. Offensively, we found some good looks but they didn't go down especially from three. We forced them into 20 turnovers but we only made five baskets off those and we didn't do what we needed to do at the free throw line. We have got to do a better job of executing and we played outside of our roles too much as individual players. We need to get better against zone because they played a lot against us and we didn't force them to get out of it with the way we played. Now that we have a game under us after the break, we have to show a lot of improvement on Sunday against a good Louisville team." - Megan Gebbia
Up Next
The Demon Deacons will return home for the first conference game at LJVM Coliseum in the New Year when the Deacs play host to Louisville on Sunday, Jan. 5.

Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. on ACC Network.

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Team Stats

Raegyn Conley

Demeara Hinds

Malaya Cowles

Rylie Theuerkauf

Players Mentioned

Raegyn Conley

Tamia Jones

Rylie Theuerkauf

Wake Forest Athletics