Arizona State allows Arizona to score 19 points off turnovers en route to ninth straight loss

(Photo credit: Sierra Watson/WCSN)

TUCSON – In Sunday’s game against Arizona, Arizona State women’s basketball showed its heart at the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth. With just a few seconds left in the third, a hustle play from junior guard Makayla Moore saved an errant pass from graduate guard Tyi Skinner. In one motion, Moore was able to save the ball and pass it to junior guard Jalyn Brown who knocked down a three to make it a three-point game as the buzzer blared.

ASU kept the momentum rolling into the start of the fourth quarter. After two missed shots and two offensive rebounds, the Sun Devils passed the ball around the three-point line, finding sophomore guard Jyah LoVett who tuned out the hostile Arizona crowd and knocked down a three on the left wing to tie the game.

Despite how good Arizona State (8-16, 2-10 Big 12 Conference) played at the bridge of the two quarters, the momentum didn’t last. Arizona (15-10, 6-6) held the Sun Devils scoreless for nearly the next five minutes and went on a 9-0 run. ASU eventually got its fight back, but it was too late. Propelled by a great crowd at the McKale Center, the Wildcats secured the 66-59 Territorial Cup win Saturday afternoon, pushing Natasha Adair’s team’s losing streak to nine games.

“Every game we’re just playing harder and harder and getting better,” Adair said. “But it’s 38 minutes. Last game was 37 minutes and it has to be 40 (full minutes), but it’s not for a lack of will, want to and fight.”

The Sun Devils played very well In some areas of Saturday afternoon’s game. Arizona State had nearly double the second-chance points of Arizona and limited the Wildcats to just 3-of-17 from three and 24-of-59 from the field, but all in all, the Sun Devils were far too streaky to be successful.

After many scoring runs and long scoring droughts, the Sun Devils found themselves only having shot 32.8% from the field and with another loss tacked onto their record. Part of what caused the streakiness wasn’t necessarily any of Arizona State’s tactics, but rather the coaching of Arizona head coach Adia Barnes.

Barnes shuffled through lineups that were more offensively focused and more defensively focused throughout the game and it was a factor in causing the ebbs and flows of the matchup.

“I think at times it’s been difficult for us to find a combination that can be really effective offensively and defensively,” Barnes said. “Because if we put more of an offensive lineup we have a really tough time guarding, we put a more defensive lineup in it’s brutal because we can’t score.”

In the end, Barnes’s offense was strong enough to put up more points and her defense contained Arizona State. One way the Wildcats contained the Sun Devils was by forcing them out of the paint.

Arizona State only scored 12 of its 59 points in the paint, something uncommon for the Sun Devils. In each of ASU’s last three games, the Sun Devils scored 28 or more points in the paint, but the Wildcats defense didn’t allow the penetration that Arizona State usually utilizes.

“They were crowding the paint in a lot of areas,” Adair said. “And I thought earlier, our guards got downhill, and that’s where some of those turnovers came from.”

The Sun Devils utilized the mid-range shot a lot more as the game progressed and the team tried to stop the turnover issue. But Arizona State was turning the ball over in more ways than one, especially in the first quarter where it turned the ball over six times.

Early on, Arizona State struggled with Arizona’s full-court press on inbound plays. In the middle of the first quarter, the Wildcats got back-to-back steals on inbound plays that turned into back-to-back scores.

As the game went on, the Sun Devils struggled less with the press as Adair made changes, but it wasn’t enough to completely stop the turnover issue. Bad passes and losing a handle of the ball led the Sun Devils to turn the ball over 15 times during the game.

The Wildcats took advantage of Arizona State’s mistakes by scoring 19 points off the 15 ASU turnovers. It was a stat in which Arizona simply blew the Sun Devils out of the water. Arizona State could only manage six points off the Wildcats’ 13 turnovers.

All the Arizona State turnovers and Arizona’s ability to take advantage of them was potentially the biggest deciding factor in the Sun Devils’ loss. It’s easy to say that without all the turnovers the final score could have been different, but Arizona State couldn’t limit them and stop Arizona from taking advantage.

“You don’t want to ever give up that many (turnovers), and for sure not to let them score on them. And were those turnovers live ball turnovers? Did they turn us over into them? Some of them yes, but some of them no. We have to take away the turnovers that we create on our own. You take five of those away, It’s a different ball game.”