Syracuse women’s basketball rallies past Wake Forest 62-50

It wasn’t pretty, but Syracuse women's basketball (10-13, 4-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) notched a 62-50 win over Wake Forest (8-15, 1-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) yesterday. The win marked the first time all season that SU has strung together back-to-back conference wins.

Coming into the contest, SU was riding high off a 93-87 victory against Virginia Tech. In that game, five different scorers found double-figures for the Orange. While just guard Georgia Woolley and Sophie Burrows did that today, both delivered down the stretch for Syracuse. However, for a majority of the contest, SU struggled to compete.

The Demon Deacons came into the contest sitting last in the ACC, yet they certainly didn’t play like it. Wake led the game 17-11 after the first quarter, and were up by five headed into the half. The Orange simply could not stop forward Demerara Hinds, who had 12 first half points all coming in the paint. Head coach Felisha Leggett Jack acknowledged Syracuse came out flat, and that it was all about settling into the game.

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"Our effort wasn't good enough to start…Once we slowed the game down in our head and got that extra dribble in, we were able to calm down."

That calmness held Hinds to just two second-half points. With the redshirt-senior shut down for Wake, Syracuse would go on to tie the game at 41 two minutes into the fourth quarter. A minute later, SU would go on a 5-0 run for its first lead of the day. While the Demon Deacons battled back to take a one point lead, the Orange crafted another 5-0 run capped by a clutch Woolley three to take a 52-48 advantage with three minutes left in the ballgame. The Orange would never trail again, going onto to win 62-50 thanks to a 23-9 fourth quarter.

Woolley led the way for Syracuse with 21 points, leading the Orange in scoring for the 10th time this season. 15 of her 21 points came in the second half. The guard also hit double-figures for a 10th straight game. Woolley wasn’t the only one contributing for SU though.

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Burrows finished with the second most points on the floor with 15. The guard also snatched a team-leading 10 boards for her second double-double of the year.

For Legette-Jack, she couldn’t have been more proud of her squad’s gritty efforts down the stretch.

"We don't have any stop in us. Our young ladies are winning in that locker room, they're winning in practice, they're winning with their sisterhood and they're communicating with each other and eventually it's going to show on the court. Lately it's been doing that and I'm just so proud of them and so proud of these young people. I tend to get emotional that, you know we're dead in the water and no reason for them to fight like this but they see their dreams against their mirror and they say let's give it our best effort and as long as they give their best effort, I'll do my best effort and together I think we can."

The win propels Syracuse to 10th in the ACC standings with just six games left to go.

Next up for SU is a trip to the west coast to face Stanford on Thursday.

The contest marks just the second ever matchup between the two sides, and the first in conference play. Tip-off is set for 10 pm.