Demon Deacons Nearly Comeback from 25 Points Down

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season despite a second half push to the William & Mary Tribe 67-64, Wednesday morning inside Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Trailing by as many as 25 points in the second half, the Demon Deacons (9-1) mounted a near comeback effort, pulling to within three before eventually dropping their first game of the season. The 25-point comeback would have been tied for the fifth-highest comeback in NCAA history. Wake Forest ended the game on a 39-17 scoring run over the last 16:10 minutes of the game.

The Deacs 9-0 start to the season was their best since the 2008-09 season.

Wake Forest won three of the four quarters against William & Mary (3-4) with the Tribe only winning the second quarter, 28-9.

Junior forward/guard Mary Carter led the Deacs with 15 points and seven rebounds, adding a steal and a block to her stat line.

Going 6-of-6 from the field, freshman guard Caitlyn Jones tallied 14 points alongside three steals. Jones had the final five points of the game that brought the contest within a basket with six seconds left.

How It Happened

Wake Forest opened the game with an 8-2 scoring stretch.
- Sophomore forward Grace Oliver and junior guard/forward Mary Carter drained back-to-back threes to make it 6-2.
- Sophomore forward Kennedy Moore found sophomore guard Aurora Sørbye under the basket for a layup at the 6:47 mark.
With less than three minutes left in the first, Sørbye drove up to the net for two in the paint.
Oliver made it 12-6 with a layup off a fast break.
The Deacs began the second quarter tied with the Tribe at 14-14.
- Junior guard Madisyn Jordan kicked off scoring with three from the right corner and a driving layup to cut the Tribe's lead, 19-21.
- Freshman guard Caitlyn Jones posted two in the paint to keep the Demon Deacons within a basket.
Wake Forest entered the half trailing William & Mary, 23-42.
The two squads exchanged points out of the break.
- Carter began the third quarter with a driving layup for two at the net.
- Oliver knocked back her second three of the night to make it 28-50.
A pull-up jumper from Jones began a 13-0 scoring run for the Demon Deacons.
- The freshman followed up with a point at the stripe, and with help from Jordan, worked a layup off a Tribe turnover.
- Carter made it 35-52 with another two in the paint.
- Sørbye drained three from behind the arc to cut the deficit to 41-52 with 2:14 in the third.
The Demon Deacons trailed by 12 headed into the final 10 minutes.
- Carter brought the game within 10, working a hookshot jumper to start the fourth.
- Graduate student forward Emily Johns took a perfect trip to the line to make it 52-60 with less than five minutes remaining.
At the one-minute mark, Carter sent three from beyond the arc to make it 59-64.
Jones brought the game within three with 12.9 on the clock.
Despite a last-minute effort, Wake Forest fell, 64-67 to the Tribe.

Standout Stats

Junior forward/guard Mary Carter led the Deacs with 15 points and seven rebounds, adding a steal and a block to her stat line.
Going 6-of-6 from the field, freshman guard Caitlyn Jones tallied 14 points alongside three steals.
- Jones had the final five points of the game that brought the contest within a basket with six seconds left.
Sophomore forward Grace Oliver went 5-for-8 from the floor and shot 60 percent from beyond the arc
- Oliver totaled 13 points and six rebounds against the Tribe.

From Gebbia
"This is a learning lesson and good. We are learning it now and unfortunately it was a loss but this is a part of our growing process. The thing that hurt us was bad post defense in the second quarter. We let them get too comfortable early. We went down 25 points and cut it to three points which is good how we handled the adversity but we dug ourselves too big of a hole. There were a couple of plays in the second half that were the turning point in the comeback. We needed to practice better going into this one cause that effort translated over to what we saw in the first half. What we do next is the most important thing. We have a tough team coming in here on Sunday and the effort has to be there from the jump." - Megan Gebbia

Up Next
The Demon Deacons continue the homestand Sunday when the Deacs play Georgetown at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.

Next Event

Team Stats

Mary Carter

Caitlyn Jones

Grace Oliver

Aurora Sørbye

Players Mentioned

Mary Carter

Emily Johns

Caitlyn Jones

Madisyn Jordan

Kennedy Moore

Grace Oliver

Wake Forest Athletics