Wake Forest Women Take Down Georgia Tech 61-52

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets by a score of 61-52 on Sunday to improve to 9-8 overall and 6-7 in the ACC. The win marks Wake Forest’s first win in Atlanta since the 2003-04 season (for either the men’s or women’s team).

The Deacs were once again led by senior guard Gina Conti, who finished with a team high 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Conti now needs just 68 assists to surpass Brooke Thomas for the all time leader in career assists at Wake Forest. Senior forward Ivana Raca finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds, her 7th double-double of the season. Christina Morra and Jewel Spear both added 10 points in the winning effort.

The Deacs fell behind early after a slow 1st quarter, but used a 17-7 run in the 2nd quarter to take a 27-26 lead going into halftime. Wake lost their lead very early in the 3rd quarter, but regained it and held it for the remaining 18+ minutes in the game. Georgia Tech got a couple of late 3-pointers from Lotta-Maj Lahtinen, who finished with a game high 22 points, to cut the Wake Forest lead to 5 with just under 2 minutes remaining. Down the stretch, the Deacs used some clutch free throw shooting to secure the victory, finishing the game shooting 15-16 (94%) from the stripe.

After getting outrebounded 28-40 in a 44-73 loss at home to Georgia Tech earlier this season, Wake Forest Head Coach Jen Hoover elected to start sophomore Olivia Summiel alongside Christina Morra to help deal with the size of the Yellow Jackets. Summiel finished the game with 3 points and 5 rebounds and helped the Deacs outrebound Tech 37-28 this time around. That is a great adjustment from Hoover to help put the Deacs in a position to win the game.

Beating a 11-3 team on the road will certainly help Wake Forest’s resume as they look to get off the bubble and into the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1988. Up next for the Deacs is 2-6 Pitt on Thursday night at 6pm.