Coming into a midday matchup, Wake Forest women’s basketball (4-18, 0-10) looked to snap their nine game loss streak but couldn’t finish out the contest, losing 55-58 to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (14-9, 5-6).
The first quarter of play started quiet for the Demon Deacons, as Georgia Tech pulled together a 7-0 lead built by Kayla Blackshear (18pts, 9reb) and Tonie Morgan (22pts, 6reb), the latter of which would prove vital to the Yellow Jackets’ victory.
Despite the early deficit, graduate student guard Kaia Harrison (9pts, 5reb) and junior guard Elise Williams (23pts, 11reb) each found their rhythm in the paint, finishing off the first quarter with the Demon Deacons trailing 13-9.
“Elise played really well with those 23 points and 11 rebounds,” Head Coach Megan Gebbia said. “Also, she really stepped up as a vocal leader.”
In the second quarter, the story remained more or less the same. The Demon Deacon effort was mostly led by Malaya Cowles (6pts, 5reb) — who used her height to deliver all of her six points in the period, capping off the scoring with a putback layup to close out the first half of play at 27-22.
Georgia Tech continued to find value in its dynamic Blackshear-Morgan duo, with the two combining for 19 points in the first half. Their presence would continue to impact the game throughout.
However, neither team could find their groove from beyond the arc in the first half, with the Demon Deacons and Yellow Jackets each shooting 0-6 from 3-point land.
The second half started off bleak for the Demon Deacons, going scoreless for the first four minutes. Georgia Tech pushed its lead to 11 points — their largest of the game. However, Williams kickstarted her team’s momentum with an and-one layup to bring their deficit to eight.
“We executed, and it took a lot of energy to come back from down double digits,” Gebbia said.
Georgia Tech soon responded with its first 3-ball of the game, delivered by Ines Noguero (3pts, 3ast) from the top of the key, but after some more mid-range scoring for the Demon Deacons, Raegyn Conley (8pts, 2stl) cracked open her team’s 3-pointer game with a snipe of her own.
Alyssa Andrews (3pts, 8reb) continued the Demon Deacons’ proficiency from deep, quickly following up with her first three of the game. Williams finished another tough look on the offensive end, and the game appeared within reach at the end of the third quarter, at 38-36 in favor of the visitors.
Wake Forest came into the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run, and their momentum didn’t slow down. Although a midrange two by Georgia Tech put their own scoreless run to rest, Williams made Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Arena erupt by swallowing up an offensive rebound and pulling off a highlight-worthy stepback three.
At the point of their run, despite having never led the entire game, a free throw made by Kate Deeble (1pt, 1reb) and more paint work by Williams gave the Demon Deacons their first lead of the game at 42-40.
Although Wake Forest was sharp up to that point, the game began to slip away. Georgia Tech consistently showed off their proficiency in the midrange and eventually drove the game to 54-46 with 1:26 remaining in the final frame.
The Demon Deacons were not out of the fight yet. Conley made her second three of the game, bringing the deficit to only five points with 59.6 seconds remaining to play. Morgan turned over the ball on a travel — and suddenly the game was in reach for Gebbia’s squad. After a long possession that led to multiple missed shots in the paint, the game was all but sealed.
“There were just a couple key moments at the end where we couldn’t quite get a hold of the game to take this one,” Gebbia said.
Williams didn’t let up, draining two more back-to-back threes in the span of 20 seconds, but her effort was to no avail, as the Demon Deacons fell to the Yellow Jackets 58-55.
“This was a huge growth step, but we need to keep building on this to continue to take the next step,” Gebbia said. “This is maybe the hardest step: to find that last little bit to start getting wins.”
The Demon Deacons face in-state rival Duke on Thursday at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. on ACCNX.
