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Arizona State looks to snap six-game losing streak on the road against No. 24 Oklahoma State

(Photo credit: Michael Kain/WCSN)

After Arizona State women’s basketball’s losing-streak-extending loss to Cincinnati over the weekend, a loss in which the Sun Devils were in control of the lead until the final minutes of the game, ASU’s next chance at victory will be in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Wednesday evening, for the first time ever, Arizona State women’s basketball will face off against Oklahoma State.

Arizona State (8-13, 2-7 Big 12 Conference) is in the midst of a six-game losing streak that extends back to Jan. 8, when the Sun Devils lost a close game to Iowa State. Since then, Arizona State has dropped games to Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, West Virginia and now Cincinnati. 

The road ahead isn’t any easier for the Sun Devils, as they’ll have to travel into hostile territory to face off against a No. 24 Oklahoma State team (17-3, 7-2 Big 12) that is third in the Big 12.

The Cowgirls come into the matchup off the back of three straight wins, including a one-point victory over No. 9 TCU, which is the Horned Frogs’ only conference loss of the year. Oklahoma State’s last loss came on the road at the hands of Houston, a team that Arizona State beat earlier this year. 

The Cowgirls’ only other conference loss on the season came at home against Kansas, aside from that loss the Cowgirls are undefeated at home. On the flip side, Arizona State is only 1-6 on the road, its only victory coming against a Maryland Eastern Shore team that is now 7-12 on the year. The combination of the Sun Devils’ struggles on the road and Oklahoma State’s dominance at home could spell disaster for Adair and her team. 

A major part of what makes Oklahoma State so hard to beat is its high-scoring offense that averages 80.5 points per game, good enough for third in the Big 12. The Cowgirls’ leading scorer is sophomore guard Stailee Heard who is following up a conference All-Freshman team first season in Stillwater by averaging 16.4 points per game on 51.1% shooting from the field. 

Heard also rebounds the ball exceptionally well and not just for a guard. Her eight rebounds per game lead the team and are the fourth-highest mark in the conference, helping the Cowgirls accumulate an average of 41.2 rebounds per game, third highest in the conference. The Sun Devils are a few spots down in fifth with 38 rebounds per game. 

Thankfully for Arizona State, Oklahoma State isn’t an elite offensive rebounding team. The Sun Devils have had problems with opponents’ offensive rebounding, but the Cowgirls only average 11.9 per game. Still, it’s a respectable number and ASU needs to make sure it comes prepared to limit OSU’s offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities as much as possible.

Overall, the Sun Devils and Cowgirls are fairly equal when it comes to rebounding, both on the offensive side and defensive side, but Oklahoma State has a clear advantage when it comes to the rest of the offensive and defensive talking points.

Heard isn’t the only Cowgirl that can score, junior guard Micah Gray is averaging 14.4 points per game on 42.7% from the field and 34.2% from beyond the arc. Gray isn’t afraid to let it fly from deep, her 2.7 made threes per game are tied for third highest in the conference. 

Oklahoma State, and specifically Heard and Gray, could feast against an Arizona State defense that allows the highest average opposing team points per game in the conference at 74.5 and allows the fourth-highest opposing field goal percentage and three-point percentage at 41.3% and 33.5%. 

Arizona State also has players that can put up big scoring numbers — junior guard Jalyn Brown and graduate guard Tyi Skinner are averaging the eighth and 14th most points per game in the conference with 17.5 and 15.6 points per game, respectively. Both players have had exceptionally high-scoring games in their careers where they have scored 30 or more points, but that doesn’t seem like a likely outcome against the Cowgirls. 

Oklahoma State has limited its opponents to an average of 58 points throughout the season, the fourth-best mark in the conference. The Cowgirls have managed to hold their opponents to awful shooting percentages, and they rank second in the conference in both opponent field goal percentage (34.8%) and three-point percentage (25.8%). 

The Sun Devils aren’t a particularly efficient team in general, they rank fourth and fifth worst in the conference with a team field goal percentage of 41.5% and a team three-point percentage of 32.7%. With Oklahoma State’s ability to limit opponents’ efficiency even more than usual, it could be an ugly day at the office for Arizona State. 

One area in which Arizona State does have a clear advantage over Oklahoma State is free throw shooting. The Sun Devils are shooting 76.7% from the line as a team, which is second to West Virginia by only .1%. The Cowgirls meanwhile only make 69.6% of their shots from the charity stripe. 

Despite being a good team from the free throw line, Arizona State doesn’t make it to the line at an exceptionally high rate. In fact, the Sun Devils only rank 10th in the conference in free throw attempts, despite playing the same number of games, if not more, than six out of nine of the teams in front of them. Head coach Natasha Adair will need to adjust her team’s game plan to try and get to the line more often if she wants the Sun Devils superior free throw shooting to have an effect on the game. 

Oklahoma State head coach Jacie Hoyt, a former player at Wichita State, is enjoying something of a breakout season in year three of the job. Unfortunately for Arizona State, Hoyt and her team stand in the way of the Sun Devils breaking their six-game losing streak and starting off the second half of conference play strong. 

It’s an uphill battle against the Cowgirls for Natasha Adair’s squad but they’ll need to figure something out soon, whether against Oklahoma State or a different upcoming opponent, in order to try and gain momentum as the Big 12 tournament approaches.

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