(Photo: Alex Gaul/WCSN)
The Arizona State Women’s Basketball rode a rollercoaster of a 2017-18 season in which they were often undersized, undermanned, and younger than the majority of their opponents.
Despite this, the team never lacked character. The character and fight of the team showed in their final game of the season as they fail to a much more physical Texas Longhorn team in the second round of the Women’s NCAA Basketball tournament 85-65.
“We’re a little bit undersized,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “So, the physicality of the game kind of caught up with us a little bit. I thought our team down to the last possession kept their character, just kept playing hard. I’ll take that over anything in the country, so I’m really proud of them.”
The Sun Devils were dominated in the paint and on the glass all night as Texas picked up 54 points in the paint compared to ASU’s 20 and were plus 21 in rebounding.
Lack of rebounding combined with a defense that simply wasn’t clicking as the team allowed an uncharacteristic amount of points as they came in allowing 57 points per contest.
“We play team defense,” Turner Thorne said. “We weren’t in sync tonight. We weren’t there for each other. We let them iso us. We let them get to the point too easily. We weren’t tough enough and consistent enough on our boxing out.”
Despite the lopsided final score, the Sun Devils pushed the Longhorns to their limit behind a 29-point night from forward Kianna Ibis. The junior had 19 points in the first half alone on 6-10 shooting and kept ASU within five points at the half as they trailed 40-35.
After the hot start for Ibis, she would only take three more shots the rest of the game and would earn most of the remaining points from the free throw line.
“We were looking for different people to keep on scoring,” Ibis said. “When they key in on me, anybody else on my team can score. So, we just looked at different options.”
Texas began to pull away from ASU in the third quarter as they outscored the Sun Devils 25-15 in the quarter behind transition offense that made it difficult to defend and set a defense against.
“I don’t think we played fast enough throughout the whole game,” guard Robbi Ryan said. “Just like I said before, Texas took advantage of that, especially in transition offense. We didn’t play fast enough to get back. We could have pushed the ball better also.”
The Longhorns would close the final quarter outscoring ASU by five, but the Sun Devils wouldn’t go away as they fought until the end hitting six of their last seven shot attempts.
While the season ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the team has a bright future ahead as they will lose no seniors to graduation and will return guard Sabrina Haines who went out earlier in the year.
“I think we’re very excited to be back up to like a Top 10 level next year,” Turner Thorne said. “We’re going to be the senior-junior team next year. The kids that we have coming in are really, really good. Really good. It’s going to be exciting to have the depth and experience.”
While the 2017-18 season ended in Austin, Texas for ASU, it marked the beginning of the next season. Behind Turner Thorne, who will be entering her 22nd season as head coach, the Sun Devils will look to return to national power behind an experienced and deep team.
