Orange Secures ACC 5-Seed with Win at Wake

Sunday, March 2

Winston-Salem, N.C.

2 p.m.

Syracuse University

21-8 (10-6ACC)

Wake Forest

14-15 (5-11ACC)

Syracuse

Wake Forest

3/2/2014 5:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Syracuse's defense forces 26 turnovers in 64-54 win.

Box Score | Season Stats | ACC Tournament Bracket

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - A defensive effort that recorded 15 steals and forced 26 turnovers led Syracuse women's basketball (21-8, 10-6 ACC) to a 64-54 victory over Wake Forest (14-15, 5-11 ACC) on Sunday at LJVM Coliseum to close the regular season and clinch the Orange the No. 5 seed in its first ACC Tournament.

The Orange finishes tied with North Carolina for fifth in the conference standings, but gets the tie-break over the Tar Heels by virtue of its 78-73 win in Chapel Hill on Jan. 30. Following its ACC tourney first-round bye, Syracuse will play the winner of Wednesday's match-up between 12-seed Virginia Tech and 13-seed Clemson on Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum. The winner of that game will play No. 4 NC State on Friday at 11 a.m.

Brianna Butler led the Orange on Sunday with 17 points, including 5-of-11 shooting from 3-point range, running her single-season program record number of trifectas to 93. Senior center Shakeya Leary had 14 points and nine rebounds, while Brittney Sykes rounded out SU's three double-figure scorers with 12 points.

Senior point guard Rachel Coffey dished out five assists to go with her five points and freshman reserve Alexis Peterson tallied six points in just five minutes.

The Orange's trapping pressure defense caused problems for the Demon Deacons all came, resulting in 26 turnovers and a 25-11 points-off-turnovers advantage for the visitors. Butler, Leary and Cornelia Fondren all had three steals each.

After SU outscored the Demon Deacons by 15 in the first half, Wake Forest started the second half with a 6-1 spurt as the Orange missed its first six shots coming out of the locker room to cut the SU lead to 10, 37-27.

After a Hamby hoop cut SU's lead to single-digits at the 12:46 mark, a Butler 3-pointer followed by an Alexis Peterson layup upped the lead by to 14, 50-36, with 12:06 left.

Hamby scored on back-to-back possessions to pull Wake within 10 at the midway point of the second half, but once again SU had an answer. La'Shay Taft hit a 3-pointer, followed by a Sykes jumper to take the Orange's lead to 15, 57-42, with 8:33 left.

The Demon Deacons made one last attack on the Orange lead when Hamby scored inside with 3:34 left, and after SU didn't score despite a pair of offensive boards, Douglas hit a 3-pointer at the 2:09 mark to make it a seven-point game, 59-52. After an SU turnover, Hamby scored again inside, making it five-point game with 1:43 left, but the Orange defense held the home team scoreless the rest of the way.

Cornelia Fondren sank two key free throws with 1:39 left to put SU back up by seven, 61-54, and despite the Orange shooting just 1-of-5 at the charity stripe until Leary made a pair with four seconds left to close the scoring, Syracuse's defense got stops on Wake's final five possessions.

Wake's Dearica Hamby led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Chelsea Douglas added 15 points for the Demon Deacons.

SU shot 41.4 percent overall, including 7-of-23 from behind the arc, while Wake shot 42.9 percent and was 3-of-13 from long range.

The Orange took control of the game early with a 13-0 run in which it held the Deacons scoreless for eight and a half minutes to take a 28-8 lead at the 7:16 mark of the first half before eventually taking a 36-21 lead into the intermission.

SU shot 47 percent in the opening 20 minutes, while Wake shot at a 36 percent clip. The Orange defense turned 15 Deacons turnovers into 14 points.

Butler led the SU charge in the first half with 12 points on 4-of-6 3-point shooting, while Sykes added nine.