Phillips’ 24 Points Not Enough, Lady 49ers Fall to Wake
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Redshirt junior Jade Phillips scored over one-half of Charlotte’s points Wednesday night but her efforts alone were not enough for the 49ers to overcome Wake Forest, as the visiting Demon Deacons claimed a 69-43 victory inside Halton Arena.
LEADERS
Phillips led all players with 24 points, her third 20-plus performance of the campaign. It featured a career-best five 3-pointers, while she added three rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 35 minutes.
Four Wake Forest (5-4) players reached double-figure scoring, led by Elisa Penna’s 16 to go along with seven boards. Ona Udoh nearly had a double-double with 14 and nine, while Alex Sharp and Ivana Raca each poured in 13 points.
FIRST QUARTER
It was a tightly-contested opening period with Charlotte (5-2) controlling much of the scoring early. After Raca knotted the score at 4-4 on a layup at the 7:56 mark, sophomore Octavia Jett-Wilson buried a 3-pointer just over a minute later to open an 8-2 run. By the time the spurt concluded, it spanned over three minutes with Phillips draining her first triple and Jett-Wilson closing it with a jumper with exactly five minutes to play. That field goal, which provided the 49ers with their largest lead, 12-6, forced the Deacs to burn a timeout. Just as quickly as the Charlotte offense was warming up, it started to cool with Udoh and Penna providing the next five points and the margin was sliced to one, 12-11. Following a Lauren Harley free throw and another Phillips trey, extending the cushion back to five, 16-11, at 2:00, Wake Forest then ended the frame on a 7-0 stretch, the last coming on a Penna jumper before the final horn, to inch ahead, 18-16.
SECOND QUARTER
The Demon Deacons continued to add to their lead, tallying the next three points, all at the charity stripe for a 10-0 overall run until Phillips ended the Niners’ lull with a jumper at the 8:36mark. She scored another at 7:22, pulling Charlotte to within one, 21-20, but the 49ers were unable to retake the lead. Kaylen Dickson countered with a 3-pointer of her own and it was the beginning of another Wake Forest streak, this time a 9-2 run, to build a 30-22 advantage with 5:28 left. Phillips’ jumper at 4:06brought the gap to five, 30-25, but the Niners were unable to get any closer the rest of the half as the final eight points, all at the foul line, stretched the halftime deficit to 13, 38-25.
THIRD QUARTER
Charlotte started the second half with renewed energy, utilizing 3-pointers from senior Laia Raventós and Phillips to make it a seven-point difference, 38-31, as just under two minutes elapsed. Sharp then halted any further 49ers’ push with a layup, followed by another from Raca, and the edge was built back up to 11, 42-31, and Charlotte was forced into a timeout. Freshman Jazmin Harris tallied the next three points, cutting the margin back to eight, 42-34, but the Deacs again used a late-period run, this time an 8-1 spurt, to widen the deficit to 50-35 entering the final stanza.
FOURTH QUARTER
Wake Forest continued to widen the gap, as Raca converted an old-fashioned three-point play and Sharp buried a traditional 3-pointer for a 21-point contest, 56-35, by the 8:20 mark. Yet another 49ers timeout was called six seconds later in an effort to regroup. Phillips and Penna traded triples over the next 90 seconds with the deficit remaining 21. Again, the 49ers could not get any closer with the Demon Deacons doubling up the scoring down the stretch as only Raventós and Phillips found the bottom of the net the rest of the way.
UP NEXT
Charlotte hits the road for its first road game of the month, traveling to Macon, Georgia, for a 1 p.m. Sunday clash with Mercer live on ESPN+.