Demon Deacons Battle No. 13 Duke

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest women's basketball team was led by a near double-double performance from senior guard Elise Williams in a loss to No. 13 Duke, 72-47, Thursday evening inside Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The Demon Deacons (8-16, 1-12 ACC) got strong performances out of redshirt senior forward Demeara Hinds and Williams.

The Deacs limited the Blue Devils (20-5, 11-2 ACC) to just 11 points in the first quarter and turned them over 19 times throughout the contest. It marked the fifth-most turnovers by the Blue Devils this season and most since Jan. 9.

As a team, the Demon Deacons went 14-of-16 (87.5 percent) from the charity stripe Thursday night, their 10th game this season shooting above 80 percent. The Deacs also finished the contest 15-of-35 (42.9 percent) from the floor, the sixth-consecutive game the team finished 40 percent or better.

With her nine points Thursday night, Williams now has 1,290 points for her career and is now 19 behind Lakevia Boykin (2009-13) in 14th in program history. The senior also hauled in a team-high eight rebounds and three steals. With the eight-rebound effort, Williams now has 485 for her career and is just 15 away from being the second player on the team to reach the 500-rebound mark in her career.

Williams would become just the second player in program history to have 1,250 career points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists for her career, joining Amy Privette (1983-87) 1,722 points, 596 rebounds and 424 assists in her career.

For the 15th time this season and seventh-consecutive game, sophomore guard Rylie Theuerkauf reached double figures with 11 points against the Blue Devils and a perfect 4-of-4 clip from the free throw line. She has 100 points over the last six games (16.6) and now averages 11.1 on the season, which leads the team.

How It Happened

After Duke opened the scoring, Hinds quickly answered with a layup with an assist from Sørbye.
Theuerkauf opened her account for the night with a turnaround jumper in the paint at the 7:33 mark.
With Duke leading 7-6 out of the media timeout, Williams connected from deep on back-to-back possessions with a Duke layup in-between.
It was a defensive battle the rest of the first quarter as Wake Forest went into the second with a 12-11 lead.
- Williams finished the quarter with six points and five rebounds.
Jones opened the second quarter with a basket at the 8:24 mark.
Cowles answered a Duke layup with one of her own as she made it 16-13 Wake Forest with 7:18 remaining in the quarter.
With five minutes remaining, Conley got on the board with a tough driving layup.
The Blue Devils closed out the half on a 10-1 run and held a 29-19 lead at the break.
Hinds scored Wake Forest's first seven points of the second half with a pair of layups and three free throws.
Sørbye added a pair of free throws at the end of the third.
Duke led 46-28 headed into the fourth quarter.
Theuerkauf knocked down a three at the beginning of the fourth followed by a driving layup by Jones at the 7:57 mark.
Williams and Theuerkauf each earned perfect trips to the line and cut it to a 17-point deficit with six minutes remaining.
Theuerkauf connected on a jumper at the 4:28 mark and Cowles went 2-for-2 from the stripe on the following possession.
- The sophomore guard reached double-figures at the free throw line a few possessions later.
Conley closed out Wake Forest's night with a pull-up jumper from just inside the arc.
The Demon Deacons fell to the Blue Devils, 72-47.

Standout Stats

Forcing the Blue Devils into 19 turnovers, Wake Forest continued its stretch forcing double-digit turnovers. The Deacs have forced 10 or more takeaways 64 times in the last 66 games. The 66-game stretch goes back to January of 2022.
- This marked the fifth-most turnovers by the Blue Devils in a game this season and most since Jan. 9 against North Carolina.
- Through 24 games this season, Wake Forest has totaled 222 steals including eight on Thursday.
The Demon Deacons went 14-of-16 (87.5 percent) from the charity stripe Thursday night, their 10th game this season shooting above 80 percent.
For the seventh-consecutive game, sophomore guard Rylie Theuerkauf reached double figures with 11 points against the Blue Devils.
- She has 100 points over the last six games and now averages 11.1 on the season, which leads the team.
- It marked her 15th game of the season with double-digit points.

From Gebbia
"We didn't execute the way we have been as of late on the offensive end of the floor. We turned the ball over way too much and didn't do a good enough job of sharing or moving the basketball on that end. We need to do a better job of getting open off the ball. If we didn't turn the ball over the way we did, this is a much different game. Our individual defense took a step forward tonight but we needed it more consistently throughout the entire 40 minutes. We did a good job with scout defense but the turnovers led to too many transition opportunities for them. A game like this shows us what we need to still workout as we push for postseason play. Now, we need to take that into the next couple of days as we prepare for a ranked Georgia Tech team on the road." - Megan Gebbia

Up Next
The Demon Deacons will return to the road this Sunday when they travel to nationally-ranked Georgia Tech for an afternoon game at McCamish Pavilion..

Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. on ACC Network.

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Players Mentioned

Demeara Hinds

Rylie Theuerkauf

Elise Williams

Wake Forest Athletics