Teams: Syracuse Orange (18-6, 7-4) vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (10-14, 1-10)
Date & Time: Sunday, February 17 at 2 p.m. ET
Location: Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
TV/Streaming: ACC Network Extra/WatchESPN
Radio: Cuse.com
Wake Forest Blog: Blogger So Dear
Series Record: Syracuse leads 5-1
Last meeting: Syracuse 71, Wake Forest 61
Last year’s meeting was a tale of two halves. The Demon Deacons led 45-29 at halftime. Wake Forest shot over 56 percent from the field in the first half and over 45 percent from three-point range. There were a few bright spots for the Orange in the first half as Tiana Mangakahia and Gabrielle Cooper scored in double-digits. But the second half was a completely different story for both teams.
Syracuse shot 48 percentage from the field after the break and held the Demon Deacons to 36 percent. The Orange made 11-of-17 from the free throw line and they held Wake Forest to two free throw attempts.
Digna Strautmane scored all 13 of her points in the second half and Mangakahia continued her impressive performance, scoring 12 of her 26 points. SU outscored Wake 42-16 in the second half to complete the 16-point comeback and beat the Demon Deacons by 10 on the road.
Head Coaches: SU: Quentin Hillsman (13th season, 281-142); Wake Forest: Jen Hoover (6th season, 98-118)
Coach’s Bio: Hoover is in her sixth season as the Head Coach of the Demon Deacons. She’s only had one winning season during her time in Winston Salem (In the 2015-2016 season Wake finished 17-16) and one season when Wake Forest finished right at .500 (The Demon Deacons went 16-16 in 2016-2017).
Wake’s best finish in ACC conference play has 6-10, which Wake has done twice (2015-2017) since she has been at the helm.
Hoover is an alum of Wake Forest and was pretty good player herself with the Demon Deacons. She’s a three-time All-ACC performer and is second in career points and rebounds. She was a part of 70 wins, which is also second in program history and led Wake to its only NCAA tournament appearances in 1998.
Last Season: The Deacs went 14-17, with a 5-11 mark in ACC play. They also picked up an opening round win in the conference tournament, beating Pitt 72-38, before falling to Miami.
Last game: Wake lost a slog of a game at home to Georgia Tech, 60-46. After the Deacons tok an early 12-8 lead, Tech took over in the second and brought a 25-18 advantage into halftime. It was all Yellow Jackets from there, courtesy of of Elizabeth Dixon and Francesca Pan (combined 37 points). Gina Conti was the only Wake player to hit double digits, scoring 15. Wake struggled from there in the game, hitting just 2 of 12 from outside.
“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: Without leading scorer Elisa Penna (out indefinitely), Wake Forest has been relying on Ivana Raca as the primary scorer. Raca’s averaging 12.8 points per game on 39.3 percent shooting from the field. She can hit from three (24 makes this year) but is not all that accurate from beyond the arc at just 25.8 percent. She’s also second on the team in both rebounds and assists.
If Syracuse Wins: It would pull Syracuse within a game of its ninth straight 20 win season under head coach Quentin Hillsman and its 10th overall in his 13 seasons with the Orange. With a win the Orange will avoid its second two-game losing streak of the season, after falling to Georgia Tech and Miami in consecutive games three weeks ago. A win would send the seniors off on a high-note in their last day game at the Carrier Dome on Senior Day. The senior will play two more games at home, but those two contest will be night games.
If Syracuse Loses: The Orange would drop to seventh in the ACC conference standings and would be trending in the wrong direction for this time of year. A loss would also be the second time SU has loss to Wake Forest in what will be the seventh time these two programs have faced off. Losing to a 10-14 team would also affect SU’s potential seeding in the NCAA tournament with committee watching every team’s performance at this point of the season.