(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
The No. 8 Oregon women’s basketball team has averaged nearly 85 points a game this season. With a variety of scoring threats and one of the most lethal offenses in the country, the Ducks came into Wells Fargo Arena and showcased a different side of their game: defense.
Oregon defeated ASU 57-44 in Tempe on Friday night. The Ducks held ASU to 31 percent shooting in a physical and hard fought game where the Sun Devils were unable to gain any sort of rhythm on the offensive side of the ball.
“We are really off offensively…they are not connected enough on offense and that really was not good team offense today at all in the second half,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We don’t really understand why. We are better than that.”
In the first half, ASU got off to an enticing start. The team jumped out to an early lead and they led jumped out to as much as a seven-point lead against one of the top teams in the country.
“We were up and they still came back,” ASU junior center Charnea Johnson-Chapman said. “We just have to play hard all 40 minutes.”
Johnson-Chapman finished Friday’s game with 14 rebounds in a big effort on the glass. Nevertheless, the Ducks would find a way to regain momentum.
Oregon weathered an early storm and just before the first half ended, Oregon freshman forward Satou Sabally sank a three to trim an ASU lead down to just one going into the locker room.
Then in the second half, the Ducks came out and grabbed control from the hands of ASU. Along with a stymying defensive effort, Oregon grabbed the lead and never looked back.
“They did everything that we expected them to do,” Turner Thorne said. “They ran everything that we prepared for and sometimes we defended it well and sometimes we didn’t…it was stuff that we prepared for and we just weren’t locked in.”
Regardless of the score, ASU managed to keep Oregon to 57 points, a task which stands out in and of itself, and it is something that many teams in the Pac-12 have not figured out either.
However, as the game wore on, Oregon’s sustained offensive attack led to some ASU breakdowns.
The Ducks finished the game with three players in double figures, including sophomore guard Sabrina Ionescu.
Ionescu is averaging nearly 20 points a game, and she is a frontrunner for Pac-12 player of the year. She was held to 16 points on Friday, but the continuous task of having to guard a variety of skilled players eventually wore on too long.
“I would say it (the game) was pretty successful defensively,” ASU junior forward Kianna Ibis said. “We just didn’t execute on offense, so unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done.”
Ibis was the lone Sun Devil in double figures, and she finished the game with 13 points on 6-11 shooting.
Ultimately, the game was a tale of two sides, with the Sun Devils digging in on defense against an elite offensive team.
However, the offense on the other side of the ball was not to be found, and it left ASU and Turner Thorne frustrated and searching for answers.
“We have had these games. This is like the fifth time that we have played a top-10 team and we have had one bad quarter,” Turner Thorne said. “We felt like it was time to get it done, and we didn’t…when we lose, it’s my fault, so I have to go home and figure it out.”
Nevertheless, Sunday will serve as a chance for ASU to redeem themselves against another worthy opponent when No. 12 Oregon State comes to Tempe.
ASU is still 12-2 on its home floor, and Sunday’s game will give the Sun Devils a chance to lock up the five-seed in the Pac-12 tournament.
Pending the results and play of Cal, ASU will finish conference play as either the five or six seed in Seattle.
With one regular season game left to play, the team will look to head into the postseason on a high note.
“You have to stay locked in and connected for 40 minutes if you are going to beat a top team,” Turner Thorne said. “We didn’t stay locked in and we didn’t stay connected, and that’s where it starts and ends, and we knew that. That’s the tough part of it. We talked about that. We know that’s what we have been doing and we still didn’t, but it’s a very young team.”
