(Photo: Connor Gleason/WCSN)
TEMPE – Four minutes into Arizona State’s season, it found itself in an 8-0 deficit.
The off-season long build-up of anticipation formed noticeable butterflies and created an early hole the Sun Devils needed to dig themselves out of. Luckily for them, third-year forward Heloisa Carrera and fourth-year forward McKinna Brackens went on a 15-3 run to take a lead that ASU never gave back.
After a sluggish opening few minutes to the season inside Desert Financial Arena, ASU (1-0) picked up the pace en route to an 84-41 overwhelming of Jackson State (0-1) on Monday evening.
Brackens and Carrera both scored game-highs of 15 points, with the duo securing 8 and 9 rebounds, respectively.
“Brackens and [Heloisa] were on the brink of a double-double; some of these effort statistics are what fans want to see,” Miller said. “Fans don’t want to come out and see golf clapping on the sideline. So our energy was really good today.”
After a rough shooting performance from beyond the arc in the first half, when the Sun Devils shot 2-of-13, ASU picked up the slack in the second half. The Sun Devils shot 9-of-17 on threes, with three of them coming from first-year guard Averie Lower.
With Lower being a first-year player, Miller said it is great to have returning players to help mentor the young guard as she navigates throughout the course of this season.
“I think when you have players that return and know what the atmosphere is like, they know what the expectation is like and know how we want to play,” Miller said. “This was good as a first win, but it was so much more than that.”
Miller said that when the offense is playing efficiently at the rim, the opportunity for 3-point attempts opens up for players like Lower to take. The Sun Devils tallied 38 points in the paint and went 18-24 on layup attempts.
“We use the term punching in a lot, so we want to get a paint touch, and then kind of play dominoes from there,” Miller said. “If help helps, then we’re kicking the skip. If they’re behind in the post, we’re getting in the post. So one thing that we’re really, really in tune on is everyone has a role, space and pace. And then we’re going to be on the brink every game. We’re going to have about five in double figures.”
Lower also said that she enjoys being the beneficiary of high efficiency in the paint as she is one of the high-volume three-point shooters on the team.
“I think with our bigs, they’re so amazing in the paint it collapses the defense a lot,” Lower said. “They can sometimes get kickout threes to me or Ella or literally anybody else on the perimeter.”
Fans always want to see their team shoot large sums of threes and produce highlight plays.
In the preseason and leading up to this season, Miller has talked about how she wants her team to play a fast and exciting brand of basketball. Against Jackson St., they did that by forcing 15 turnovers and scoring 15 points on fast-break chances.
In addition to the Sun Devils running out in transition, the 30 Sun Devil 3-point attempts are more than any number from Miller’s first season as head coach last year.
“Fans don’t want to come out and see golf clapping on the sideline,” Miller said. “Our ‘benergy’ was really good today. They don’t want to see this kind of nonchalant attitude.”
“I saw a glimpse of a team that I’m excited to watch grow this season,” Miller said.
