ASU’ best shooting night of the season propells it past Cincinnati, 82-75

(Photo credit: Maya Diaz/WCSN)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Early in the second quarter of Arizona State women’s basketball’s first-round matchup in the Big 12 Conference championship against Cincinnati, ASU junior forward Kennedy Basham grabbed a defensive board that started a fastbreak for the Sun Devils.

Graduate guard Tyi Skinner brought the ball up the court before stopping and popping her shot with her toes on the right wing 3-point line. Her shot arced perfectly and swished through the net, increasing Arizona State’s lead to double digits and making the Sun Devils 10-for-20 on the night from the field. The Sun Devils hovered around the 50% mark for the rest of the game; the impressive consistency at which Arizona State found the bottom of the net was the biggest factor in its upset victory.

Arizona State (10-22, 3-15 Big 12) finished the game shooting 50% from the field and 40% from 3-point range. It was the first time all season that Sun Devils registered 50-40 splits this season, propelling head coach Natasha Adair’s team to an 82-75 win over Cincinnati (15-14, 7-11) on Wednesday evening inside Kansas City, Missouri’s, T-Mobile Center.

“I thought we shared the ball,” Adair said. “We gave up the good shot for the great shot. I thought we were really good defensively and I think our defense was what really predicated how we were going to score offensively. We scored in the half court, in transition, they were shot ready.”

Junior guard Jalyn Brown led the team in scoring in the win, recording 27 points on 56.3% shooting from the field. All of Brown’s 27 points were needed and appreciated in the win, but she walked into the game needing just 21 to break the career 1000-point mark

Brown was able to stay within herself and put together an efficient performance to help her team win. Brown, who came into this game as ASU’s leading points-per-game scorer with 17.4, has the ability to adapt to how the defense approaches her, a skill she’s needed at multiple points throughout the year.

“I think this year I’ve been guarded in so many different ways, like every game I’m coming into the game thinking I wonder how they’re going to guard me this time,” Brown said. “As long as I have space, I’m good.”

Skinner was ASU’s second-leading scorer, finishing just one point behind Brown’s 27. Skinner went 46.2% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc on eight attempts. Skinner’s four threes gave her 76 on the season, tying her with guard Katie Hempen’s 2014-15 season for most 3-pointers in a single season by a Sun Devil.

Skinner’s reasoning for her successful evening was simple.

“The Wilson ball today, it was good,” Skinner said. “The court is good. They did a great job setting up the court. The rooms was good, the basketball was good. It’s all good, in my opinion.”

When Arizona State played Cincinnati at home in Tempe during the regular season, the Sun Devils blew a late lead and lost 73-66. A contributing factor to the loss was ASU’s 38.5% mark from the field.

Adair and her staff went to the drawing board to make sure that the Sun Devils didn’t shoot at a subpar mark again and her players were able to execute.

“We talked about playing in space,” Adair said. “We were playing off-ball screens, scoring in transition. … They were going to draw to Tyi (Skinner), and they’re going to draw to (Brown), and I thought they did a phenomenal job making that extra pass, finding their teammates, the post players inside, (graduate center) Nevaeh (Parkinson), Kennedy Basham went inside and out, so just locating the open player. We got them in space and when we were in space, anything was able to happen.”

Brown and Skinner were joined in the scoring column by Parkinson (15 points), sophomore guard Jyah LoVett (10 points) and senior forward Hanna Miller (4). All of those players helped contribute to the Sun Devils going 24-for-30 (80%) from the free-throw line and beating their best in-conference average of 76.1% from the charity stripe.

Skinner sunk all 10 of her free-throw attempts, including six in the last 31 seconds of the game to close out the victory for ASU. Brown led the team in attempts with 11 and hit seven of them, crediting the team’s practices as the differentiator between ASU’s free-throw prowess and the rest of the pack.

“We have practices where we have to make 50 free throws before we leave,” Brown said. “I think it’s about concentration and knowing yourself. … It’s not like you’re shooting off the dribble or have to do a catch-and-shoot, it’s more like a routine and everybody sticks to their routine.”

Arizona State is always strong from the free-throw line, but the team picked the perfect time to shoot the ball the best it has all season. Despite being shorthanded and in an intense single-elimination tournament as an underdog, the Sun Devils were able to shine their brightest.

The job is far from over for ASU, but the team played its best 40 minutes all season, giving them a chance to put together an even better 40 minutes tomorrow.

“We said, ‘What is it going to look like when all players are clicking on all cylinders and we do it together?’” Adair said. “I think we showed you, everyone stepped up. It was a team effort and we survive and advance. We get to play another day, same time tomorrow.”