GREENSBORO, N.C. – Jewell Spear scored 15 of her 23 points in the second half and 11th-seeded Wake Forest put together a late run to defeat 14-seed Virginia 61-53 in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Olivia Summiel’s 3-pointer with 5:32 to play gave the Demon Deacons their first lead since early in the second quarter at 51-50. It also started a game-closing 14-2 run as the Cavaliers went cold, missing their last five shots.
“Really tough one for us,” said Virginia head coach Tina Thompson. “We felt like we controlled the game for most of the game. We had a really tough fourth quarter where we were having problems executing as well as missing a few assignments defensively. I’m proud of my team. It’s really, really tough to kind of have the bumps that we’ve had during the season but continue to show up and continue to fight. We just wish that this one would have ended a little differently. I kind of feel like we ran out of time.”
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Wake Forest faces No. 25 Georgia Tech, the sixth seed, in the second round on Thursday. Mir McLean and London Clarkson both scored 11 points for the Cavaliers.