(Photo credit: Maya Diaz/WCSN)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After nearly every one of Arizona State’s 21 losses in 2024-25, head coach Natasha Adair began her press conferences with a deep sigh before adjusting her glasses and delivering her signature message:
The Sun Devils had their chances, but they just needed to play a full 40 minutes.
Yet, as the defeats piled on and the disappointment mounted, it seemed like the consistent, wall-to-wall performance that Adair often spoke of just may not exist within an ASU team that finished 15th out of 16 teams in its first season in the Big 12 Conference.
Then, with their season and potentially Adair’s job on the line, the Sun Devils put it all together.
Behind 53 combined points from junior guard Jalyn Brown and graduate guard Tyi Skinner, No. 15 seed ASU toppled No. 10 seed Cincinnati 82-75 to move into the second round of the Big 12 tournament where it will face No. 7 seed Iowa State.
“What a win. We have been talking all year about putting it all together,” Adair said. “We said what is it going to look like when all players are clicking on all cylinders and we do it together? Well, I think we showed you. Everyone stepped up. It was a team effort, and we survive and advance.”
Despite leading by as many as 19 points with less than eight minutes left in the final quarter, the Sun Devils nearly fell victim to a furious Bearcat comeback. With 3:56 remaining, Cincinnati took advantage of a trio of ASU turnovers to cut the Sun Devils’ lead to 10.
After playing one of its best games since the opening tip, an air of dread began to linger on the ASU bench. The Sun Devils needed to showcase a level of resilience not often seen from the team to that point in the season.
Then Brown unleashed a crossover, got on the inside shoulder of her defender and finished through contact for an and-one. It was that kind of night for the Baltimore native.
“This year I’ve been guarded so many different ways, 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.”
Brown’s old-fashioned three-point-play gave ASU a cushion that it would nurse for a few minutes before a flurry of Cincinnati threes suddenly slashed the lead to three with 35 seconds to play. With ASU needing a basket to put the game to bed, Skinner, as she had so many times in her long collegiate career, drove to the elbow and pulled up for a jumper.
She missed it. Yet, the 5-foot-5 graduate student pulled off a savvy veteran play, snaking her way to the rim to collect her own miss. Skinner was then fouled before burying the free throws to clinch the victory for ASU.
“She is a leader and she is a winner,” Adair said about Skinner. “Anytime you have a winner, you rally around her. She calms everyone down. She leads when she is out on the court.”
The Sun Devils got themselves into an offensive flow from the first possession, moving off the ball and working off one another to create an open shot nearly every time down the floor.
In the first meeting between these two teams, a 73-66 Bearcat win, ASU shot 32% from the field. Wednesday night was a different story, with Sun Devil shooters routinely punishing Cincinnati defenders for sloppy closeouts en route to a 50% clip from the field and a 40% mark from downtown. Skinner led ASU with four triples, crediting the basketball itself for her success.
“The Wilson ball today, it was good. The court was good, they did a great job setting up the court,” Skinner said. It’s all good, in my opinion.”
Defensively, the Sun Devils set up in a 2-3 zone, essentially daring the Bearcats to shoot them out of the gym. The higher seed did the opposite, shooting just 42% from the field.
ASU profiles as a strong zone team given its athletic, taller roster, and found success thanks to Adair making a clever tactical adjustment that turned typically one of a zone’s biggest weaknesses, weak side rebounding, into a strength for the Sun Devils.
Adair put 6-foot-3 graduate center Neveah Parkinson in the center of the backline while shifting 6-foot-7 junior center Kennedy Basham to the bottom left. This move helped ASU two-fold; it allowed Parkinson, the better communicator between the two centers, to serve as the general of the zone while placing Basham, the better rebounder of the two, in a position to claim the flurry of weakside rebounds that bounced her way.
Basham finished with a team-high 10 rebounds as ASU dominated the defensive rebound battle 30-23. Parkinson, meanwhile, communicated well with her teammates, putting them in positions to contest without fouling, allowing the Sun Devils to avoid foul trouble for much of the contest until the waning minutes.
“We get a lot of deflections, even if it’s not getting a blocked shot, but we’re in a good position to rebound,” Basham said. “It’s intimidating for people just to even come down there, so it forces them to shoot outside shots. I think that’s what really helped us this game, and I feel like we communicated really well.”
Wednesday’s commanding victory sets the stage for ASU to avenge another home loss from earlier in the season with a matchup against Iowa State, which defeated the Sun Devils 90-83 at Mullett Arena on Jan 8.
The game will be another test for Adair’s underdog squad. But, in the eyes of its third-year coach, ASU could just be getting started in Kansas City.
“We will be prepared for (Iowa State),” Adair said. “I think coming off this game gives us a ton of confidence going into tomorrow night”
