Wake Forest women upset No. 7 Miami 81-74

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The way Miami coach Katie Meier sees it, her seventh-ranked Hurricanes deserved their early exit from the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

Wake Forest outplayed Miami throughout the first half and built a 15-point halftime lead, then held off a second-half run by the Hurricanes to win 81-74 in Friday's quarterfinals.

Meier said she wasn't about to give her team a pat on the back for its second-half performance considering how badly her Hurricanes played early.

"I have a saying that the most excited team wins," Meier said. "Wake Forest was way more excited than us and they won."

Miami beat Wake Forest 64-39 in late January, holding the Demon Deacons to a season-low 25 percent shooting. This time, Miami shot 9-for-32 (28 percent) in the first half while Wake Forest shot 49 percent on the way to a 38-23 halftime lead.

"I thought Wake did a good job with the tempo, keeping us on our heels and we didn't show up for this game," Miami's Shenise Johnson said. "And the result is us losing."

Secily Ray scored a season-high 21 points to lead Wake Forest.

Chelsea Douglas added 18 points for the seventh-seeded Demon Deacons (19-12), who advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 1988 and just the third time ever. Wake Forest shot 46 percent for the game and pushed ahead from a 68-all tie in the final 2 minutes to seal the victory.

Riquna Williams scored 22 points to lead the second-seeded Hurricanes (25-5).

It was the second straight upset in the ACC quarterfinals. Wake Forest's win came right after ninth-seeded North Carolina State beat fifth-ranked and top-seeded Duke.

Sandra Garcia added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Wake Forest, including the go-ahead putback with 1:50 left. Then Lakevia Boykin (16 points) scored on a driving shot over Stefanie Yderstrom to push the lead to four on the next possession.

The Demon Deacons did the rest of their work at the free throw line. As the Hurricanes continued to miss the shots they made earlier to spark their second-half comeback, Wake Forest went 7 for 8 at the line in the final 90 seconds to stay in control. Boykin scored a layup off a long inbounds to punctuate the victory, though the Wake Forest bench nearly ran onto the court to celebrate too soon on an out-of-bounds call with 0.2 seconds left.

Wake Forest ran off 13 straight points and outscored the Hurricanes 19-4 in the final eight minutes of the first half to take the 38-23 lead at the break. The Hurricanes weren't able to cut into that lead significantly until putting together a 12-2 run with about 7½ minutes left and taking a 66-64 lead on Yderstrom's three-point play with 4:56 left.

It was Miami's first lead since 16-15 with about 10 minutes left in the first half.