(Photo credit: Austin Hurst/WCSN)
TEMPE – When Arizona State women’s basketball’s sophomore guard Jyah LoVett got caught up on a screen set by TCU graduate center Sedona Prince in the early moments of the third quarter in Wednesday night’s Big 12 Conference matchup, it seemed like an inconspicuous moment.
However, the screen created enough separation between LoVett and TCU senior guard Madison Conner, to allow Conner to drive toward the left-hand corner of the free-throw line and knock down her first shot of nine shots on the night.
The jumper awakened a fire inside of Conner that Arizona State (8-19, 2-13 Big 12) couldn’t put out and would eventually succumb to, falling to No. 10 TCU (25-3, 13-2) 82-66. Conner’s 22 points, which all came in the second half, sent ASU searching for answers on how to stop her as she powered her team over the Sun Devils. The loss increased head coach Natasha Adair’s team’s losing streak to 12 and ruined its penultimate home game and final game of the year at Mullett Arena.
“If you’re delayed a second, we talked to (the team) about it, (Conner will) score behind the ball screen,” Adair said. “She doesn’t need daylight to knock it down. So I think it was just our positioning a little bit on the ball screen, and we were a little late.”
Conner’s scoring barrage included three 3-pointers in just over two minutes as the fourth quarter neared its end.
When she hit her first three of the sequence — a quick catch-and-shoot on the left wing that junior guard Jalyn Brown couldn’t contest in time at the 3:20 mark in the fourth quarter — she increased TCU’s lead from nine to 12. Arizona State never got within single digits of the Horned Frogs again, as Conner’s last two 3-pointers served as an exclamation point on the Sun Devils’ loss.
“We know she’s a good shooter,” Adair said. “We run her off, and she doesn’t get those three threes. I think those were daggers. Those are momentum threes.”
Those momentum threes might have sealed the deal for TCU, but Arizona State had a chance to take advantage of some momentum earlier in the game.
Seconds before halftime, ASU graduate guard Tyi Skinner heaved up a prayer shot over the head of TCU graduate guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu at the top of the three-point line. As the buzzer blared, her shot banked off the backboard and through the net. The Sun Devil faithful erupted as Skinner soaked it all in, walking to the locker room having cut the TCU lead to just seven points, 42-35.
“It’s good just giving my team momentum going into halftime,” Skinner said. “I think anytime we hit a shot before going (in for half), we want to get the last shot anyway, but anytime we hit a shot I think it kind of drains the other team and it kind of gives us momentum going into the second half.”
Unfortunately for Skinner and her teammates, the Horned Frogs were able to take control of the game coming out of the break instead.
Arizona State only turned the ball over seven times all game, but four of those turnovers came in the third quarter. The Sun Devils also only shot 40% from the field in the frame. The TCU defense did its job and the offense followed.
“(Arizona State) had a big run in the second quarter,” Conner said. “I feel like that was something that we had to lock in, and we were getting stops in the third quarter and then that led to easy offense. That was something we really focused on in halftime and we just had to come out there, and we knew what we were doing wrong so I feel like that got our offense going.”
The Sun Devils still kept the game competitive, despite only shooting 36.5% from the field. What the Sun Devils did well was make their shots from the free-throw line and hit threes.
Arizona State went 14-for-18 from the charity stripe and 6-for-11 from beyond the arc. They also limited TCU to just 7-of-22 from 3-point range, and the Horned Frogs struggled a bit at the line, going 9-for-14.
Skinner hit four threes for the Maroon and Gold and the other two were made by junior guard Makayla Moore, who was making her third start on the year and second start in as many games. Moore got the start partially due to injuries, but also because she has played herself into more playing time.
“It’s unfortunate because we’d love to have (graduate guard/forward) Maggie (Besselink) on the floor, we’d love to have (junior guard Kennedy) Fauntleroy on the floor, we’d love to have (graduate guard) Jazion Jackson on the floor,” Adair said. “I mean, these are all players with experience, that changes the game for us, but it’s next woman up. I think we get to see Makayla Moore, right? And Makayla Moore has stepped up.”
It also seemed like a next-woman-up mentality for TCU. The Horned Frogs’ star graduate guard Hailey Van Lith was limited to just 10 points on 28.6% shooting and Conner was scoreless for the first half. Despite this, TCU still found ways to score and lead throughout the entire game.
Despite a nine-rebound night from junior forward Kennedy Basham, the Horned Frogs out-rebounded the Sun Devils 42-26, which created more offense for TCU. In spite of both teams having the same number of offensive rebounds, the Horned Frogs were the team that was able to take advantage of them, outsourcing the Sun Devils in the second-chance points column 13-5.
One area of the TCU offense that shined was the passing. The Horned Frogs had 23 assists to the Sun Devils’ seven and created open looks throughout the game due to great passing and a pick-and-roll offense that resulted in a 56.9% completion rate from the field for head coach Mark Campbell’s team.
“They’re so unselfish,” Campbell said. “They all have the ability to attack and be playmakers, but as a whole, we have a really talented group that plays the game right, and it’s been hard for teams to slow this group down offensively.”
Even on a night when Van Lith didn’t have her usual scoring touch, she beat the ASU defense with seven assists.
“I thought we did a good job of stopping her, slowing her down from scoring the way that she wanted to,” Skinner said. “But she did do a good job of getting her teammates involved. … She kind of got Sedona (Prince) going early.”
Prince, who scored 17, was one of the five Horned Frogs with double-digit points. The Sun Devils only had two, yet they fought tooth and nail until TCU finally pulled away for the final time in the fourth quarter.
According to Adair, it’s too late in the season to be happy about moral victories, but the Sun Devils did show heart against a top-10 team in the nation while shorthanded. Adair views the Big 12 Tournament as a completely new season, a fresh slate for the Sun Devils and there are positives she can take from this game and try to apply throughout a full game come tournament time.
“We made it hard for them,” Adair said.” It wasn’t an easy game for them, regardless of the score. I thought we played together, I thought we shared the ball, I thought key people stepped up. But we just got to put it all together for 40 minutes.”
