No. 23 Arizona State and No. 4 Baylor treated a packed crowd of the Navajo Nation to an entertaining ‘Showdown on the Rez’ in Fort Defiance on Sunday night. Despite a slow first half from the Bears, they proved why they are the fourth-ranked team in the country, taking down the Sun Devils 65-59.
It was a tale of two halves for both teams. ASU was off to the races in the first half, blitzing Baylor with a barrage of eight three balls in the first half. Meanwhile, Baylor committed eight first quarter turnovers and only shot 3-9 from the field in the first quarter. These trends helped ASU to a 19-8 lead after the first quarter and a 35-24 lead at halftime.
The second half was completely different, as Baylor relied on its dominant inside presence to pound the Devils in the paint. Reigning Big 12 Player of the Year Kalani Brown and 2018 All-American Lauren Cox each scored 14 points in the game. Baylor scored 46 points in the paint compared to eight for ASU.
“I think we weren’t locked in,” senior forward Kianna Ibis said. “We just need to be better defensively, especially as a whole team in ball pressure and making sure they don’t get that pass to the post.”
Redshirt senior guard Courtney Ekmark and Ibis led ASU in points, with each scoring 13. However, the Devils went ice cold in the second half, shooting just 7-31 from the field and 3-12 from three.
“We missed shots. We were fine with their size,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “But they are the biggest team in the country and very hard to match up with. We took care of the ball great but they did kill us on the boards.”
Like Turner Thorne said, ASU did well containing Baylor on the glass in the first half, as the Devils only grabbed two less boards than the Bears in that span. That changed after the break, as Baylor outrebounded ASU by 17 in the second half.
Turner Thorne talked about ASU’s poor execution of sticking to the offensive strategy in the second half.
“Our guards were faking and dribbling sideways and the post was open. The pop was open,” Turner Thorne said. “Things that were part of our offensive game plan and we just kind of missed it.”
Overall though, Turner Thorne stressed the importance of hitting the open looks when ASU needed them the most.
“We just got to make some shots,” she said. “Frankly, we didn’t have people catch and shoot. Some of our better shooters weren’t ready to shoot and that was frustrating. We got good looks too and we just missed.”
Despite the loss, ASU is optimistic that they competed well against a top-tier team, but will need more focus and energy in order to finish off close games against tough opponents. The Sun Devils have another test in No. 5 Louisville looming on Nov. 23.
“This game shows we are a really good team but it also shows we can’t take any quarters off,” Ekmark said. “We threw the first punch today but then we didn’t keep it up. I think our consistency and playing hard throughout the entire game is what we are going to do against Louisville.”
The Sun Devils have a tune-up before facing the Cardinals, as they travel to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas next Sunday at 6 p.m.
