Syracuse women's basketball faces its first ACC opponent of the season on Sunday when it takes on Wake Forest at noon inside the Dome.
The Orange are coming off a convincing victory over the Wagner Seahawks last week. The win kept their perfect home record intact and, more importantly, snapped Syracuse’s streak of getting off to a slow start.
Syracuse was explosive right out of the gate, but the star of the show was Dariauna Lewis. The senior forward recorded another double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Additionally, every player that saw the court for the Orange made their way into the scoring column. The bench was productive, recording 43 of Syracuse’s 83 points. Saniaa Wilson had a career game, solidifying her position as a reliable option off the bench for Coach Legette-Jack.
Wake Forest comes into the matchup on a five-game win streak, with an overall record of 8-3.
Most recently, Wake Forest defeated Longwood 83-43. Before that, they beat Charlotte and High Point, both of which were much closer games.
Something they’ve struggled with, however, is going up against Power 5 opponents.
Wake Forest has lost to Virginia, Alabama and Missouri. Virginia and Missouri are both receiving AP Top 25 votes, and Virginia is undefeated. Missouri’s one loss of the season came against Virginia Tech, a top-10 team in the nation.
The Demon Deacons only have one player averaging more than 10 points per game. Jewel Spear, a junior guard, is averaging 16.7 points per game so far this season. Spear is also the only player on Wake Forest’s roster that averages over 30 minutes per game.
With only one player averaging over 30 minutes per game, the Orange can expect to face a team that, like them, has bench options.
The other two players to watch for Wake Forest are sophomore guard Elise Williams and senior forward Olivia Summiel. Williams ranks second on the team in both minutes and points per game and leads the team in assists.
Summiel leads the team in rebounds, averaging seven boards per game in just over 27 minutes on average. At six-foot-two, she will force Syracuse’s bigs to play aggressive, but smart, basketball. She is not as much a scorer as she is a rebounder, but she will likely still try to drive to the basket, something that Dariauna Lewis, Saniaa Wilson and Asia Strong should prepare for.
Coach Legette-Jack spoke about the key differences between her squad and Wake Forest this week.
“They’re bigger and stronger. We’re still faster, I think than a lot of teams in our conference, but it’s a new season. It’s zero to zero right now,” Legette-Jack said. “We’ve got to be a lot more ready. I was never in the ACC before, and as we go through it, we’re going to continue to get better.”
While this may be the start of conference play for her team, Coach Legette-Jack said that the fact that Wake Forest is their first ACC opponent makes no difference in their mentality going into the game.
“We’re not looking forward to anything in ACC play. We’re just looking forward to the next opportunity to play,” Legette-Jack said. “I just believe that the more we play this season, the more we connect as people in every game that comes. It could be an ACC game, or it could be Albany in the next couple days, we get together and continue to love each other and learn from each other, we’re going to be a fun team to go up against in March.”
The game is set to tip off at noon at the JMA Wireless Dome. It will be broadcast on ACC Network.