Arizona State commits 33 personal fouls en route to 73-66 loss

(Photo credit: Maya Diaz/WCSN)

TEMPE – With just a minute left in Arizona State’s Saturday evening affair against Cincinnati, ASU sophomore guard Jyah LoVett drove to the basket from near the top of the key. LoVett’s layup didn’t sink through the net, instead, it bounced off the backboard and the front of the rim leaving LoVett’s teammate, graduate center Nevaeh Parkinson, and Cincinnati’s fifth-year forward Jillian Hayes, to fight for the rebound.

Parkinson reached over Hayes in an attempt to grab the ball, and in doing so she fouled Hayes. It was Parkinson’s fifth foul of the game, disqualifying her from the rest of the game. Hayes went to the free throw line and made 1-of-2 to increase the Bearcats’ lead to 63-61.

It was the closest Arizona State (8-13, 2-7 Big 12 Conference) would be to its opponent the rest of the game as Cincinnati (12-6, 4-4) went 10-of-10 from the charity stripe to close out the game and win 73-66 on the road at Desert Financial Arena.

Arizona State head coach Natasha Adair knew that getting to the line would be a priority for Cincinnati, which entered the Saturday evening contest fifth in the 16-team Big 12 Conference in both free throw attempts (385) and free throw percentage (.756). The Sun Devils managed to keep the Bearcats off the line initially, but the early game trend wouldn’t continue into the second half.

“They were 6-for-11 from the free throw line at halftime and they finished 28-for-39,” Adair said. “That was an area that we knew that they were going to try to do, try to get downhill, try to create that momentum to get to the free throw line.”

Despite knowing Cincinnati was going to be aggressive in trying to draw fouls, Arizona State couldn’t avoid committing them early in the second half. The Sun Devils found themselves putting the Bearcats in the bonus at just the 7:20 mark in the third quarter.

Cincinnati went 6-for-9 from the line during the bonus and went 8-for-11 as a whole in the third quarter. Not only were the Bearcats starting to get to the line more frequently, but they were also becoming more efficient.

What saved Arizona State from blowing its 32-28 first-half lead in the third quarter was a mixture of the Sun Devils shooting 63.6% from the field in the quarter and the Bearcats shooting 23.1%. In fact, despite Cincinnati making eight free throws Arizona State managed to increase its lead to 53-44 entering the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Arizona State committed 15 personal fouls and eight before Parkinson’s day ending foul at the 57.2-second mark in the quarter. The fouls, just as much as Arizona State’s turnovers and failure to stop Cincinnati’s second-chance points, lost Arizona State the game.

“We’re never going to really complain about the calls,” Adair said. “But there were just key possessions where we might have put them on the line.”

By the 4:43 mark in the fourth quarter not only were the Bearcats back in the bonus, but Parkinson, LoVett, junior guard Jalyn Brown, graduate guard Jazion Jackson and junior forward Kennedy Basham all had four fouls and were on the verge of fouling out.

This meant Coach Adair had to sub out some of her go-to players, and the ones that were still on the court couldn’t defend as aggressively.

“You had some lineups that probably were a little different that you hadn’t seen at the end of the game, and lineups that didn’t play together,” Adair said. “Everyone’s ready, and everyone was ready when their name was called, but I think it affected who was in and the rhythm, if you will, of some of the players that were in pretty much the majority of the game.”

Cincinnati posted its most efficient quarter from the field in the fourth (53.8%) against the Sun Devils’ unusual lineups, and when Cincinnati made it to the line six times in the last minute the Bearcats were able to insert the dagger.

“They all sting,” Adair said. “But this one stings.”