(Photo: Brooke Faber/WCSN)
The Territorial Cup: three words that evoke the passion and intensity of the state of Arizona in a way that nothing else quite can.
Considered one of the most intense rivalries in college sports, it features the Arizona State Sun Devils and the rival Arizona Wildcats, spanning across more than 20 intercollegiate varsity sports in an accumulative points system that results in a winner at the end of each school year.
It’s a game that players have circled on their calendar since the beginning of the season. For a single week, all prior records and accomplishments go out the window as the Sun Devils and the Wildcats clash.
Neither team is to be taken lightly in this matchup, and you won’t hear any team preaching that sentiment more than the senior-heavy ASU women’s basketball team.
“Never take U of A lightly,” said senior point guard Elisha Davis. “They’re gonna give this game all they have. And now that we’re a bigger target because of how well we’re doing this season, we could punch their ticket if they were to beat us, and they know that.”
After 12 straight victories, ASU has tied its program-best ranking of No. 8 in the AP Poll and remain the only undefeated team in Pac-12 play this season, creating an even bigger target on their backs for Arizona.
With five seniors on the roster, this home-and-home with Arizona could be the last time that a large portion of this ASU team will be able to participate in the Territorial Cup. In such a high-intensity rivalry, that realization could cause most teams to lose focus and take their minds off of the task at hand, but not this team.
Just talking to some of the seniors on this Sun Devil team, it was apparent that they’ve poured all of their focus and energy into taking care of business against Arizona one last time.
“The emotions are obviously different,” said senior guard Arnecia Hawkins. “We’re all pretty fired up, and as hard as we’ve worked in our other games, we want to work 10 times harder in this one, but we prepare the same way. We’re ready to defend, deny, and attack like we do in any other game.”
Except this isn’t like just any other game. The Sun Devils will have to play the Wildcats at home on Friday, and then almost immediately load up the bus and head south for Tucson, where they’ll play a second game on Sunday.
“I don’t know that anybody really likes playing their rival twice in one week,” said head coach Charli Turner Thorne. “This is the first time we’ll play the games back to back like this. We usually have two or three days rest in between, so this’ll be interesting.”
The lack of time off in between high-intensity matchups like this has the potential to wear out the teams involved, sometimes working in the lesser team’s favor, but Turner Thorne seems adamant that her experienced squad will be able to handle it.
Even just playing the same team twice in one weekend can be an equation for a letdown, a scenario that senior guard Katie Hempen knows all too well, but Hempen is determined to not feel that disappointment in her senior campaign.
“I still remember my first year here we lost to [Arizona] at Tucson,” Hempen said. “That still lingers in the back of my mind. Even though we beat them twice last year, it’s in the back of our heads like ‘Hey, you lost to them one time while you were here,’ so we can’t let that happen again. We still know that feeling and we use that as fuel for intensity, and toughness, and aggressiveness.”
All in all, this talented group of seniors seems prepared to give rival Arizona everything they have in order to come out on top one last time. With bragging rights and maintaining the top spot in the Pac-12 on the line for these Sun Devils, this game is as big as any.
“It’s like the super bowl for our Sun Devil nation,” Davis said. “And as seniors it’s our last go round. It’s about leaving that legacy for people to remember you by. We’re letting U of A know that this is our house, this is our town, and this is our state, and we’re going to give everything we’ve got one last time.”
