Sports > January 17, 2008

By Matt Six | Staff Writer

The Wake Forest women’s basketball team suffered a loss to Clemson 85-73 Jan. 14 at Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum.

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Junior Alex Tchangoue defends the basket during the Deacons’ 85-73 loss to Clemson Jan. 14. Tchangoue scored 10 points and had eight rebounds in the bout. (Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

Freshman Camille Collier posted a career-high 20 points for the Deacs, but the Wake defense faltered as it allowed the Tigers to score 85 points, the largest point total given up in a single game this season for Wake.

Wake Forest junior Corinne Groves added 18 points in a back-and-forth game that saw Clemson pull away at the 7-minute mark in the second half.

Wake got off to a slow start with Clemson leading 9-1 in the opening minutes.

Anyone who follows the Lady Deacs knows that they tend to get off to a slow start and subsequently come storming back to end the first half.

The match-up with the Tigers fit this mold perfectly.

Clemson led by as many as 12 early in the contest. Then, with four minutes remaining in the first half, senior Christen Brown and Collier hit consecutive three-pointers to tie the game for the first time at 32-32.

Wake hit an amazing seven three-pointers in the first half, and they finished the game with a total of 11.

The Demon Deacons took a two-point lead with one minute remaining in the half.

But, Clemson gathered a defensive rebound with less than 10 seconds remaining and CU’s Lele Hardy hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Tigers a one-point lead, 42-41 to end the half. The high scoring offenses of both teams continued to shoot well in the second half.

The game had many lead changes in the first 13 minutes of the second half. Collier hit back-to-back three-pointers to spark a Wake run with eight minutes remaining.

This put Wake up 64-61. Collier went an impressive 5-10 from behind the arc.

This was the last lead the Lady Deacs would have. Clemson responded with eight unanswered points and never looked back on their way to their first ACC victory of the young season.

The Tigers hit their free throws late to stretch the lead to 12 to end the game 85-73.

“Offensively, this was our best effort of the year,” Head Coach Mike Petersen said.

“But defensively, we completely lost track of what we were doing. For us to win, we have to do a better job defensively.”

The game was eerily similar to their match with Georgia Tech Jan. 11. In that game, Wake held a lead with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game only to see it evaporate with a late Yellow Jacket run. During the game against GT, Wake layed an egg from behind the arc at 0-15. It is hard to win in the ACC when you have long offensive dry spells, especially in the second half as the Lady Deacs have done in the past two games.

With that being said, their hard work and determination to win is evident on the court, and it is only a matter of time before Wake breaks through and wins some ACC games.

The team will begin a two-game road stretch against Florida State on Jan. 17 in Tallahassee. FSU has a record of 11-6 and is 1-1 in ACC play, with a recent loss against Duke.

The warm weather in Florida will be short-lived, as the lady Deacs trek up north to Chestnut Hill to battle Boston College Jan. 20. The Lady Eagles are 15-4 overall and 2-1 in the ACC and feature the two-time ACC Rookie of the Week Carolyn Swords.