(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
The No. 19 Arizona State women’s basketball team (3-2) finished 1-1 in their Thanksgiving tournament in Las Vegas, taking No. 5 Louisville the distance on Friday before blowing out Southern Illinois on Saturday.
On Friday against Louisville (5-0), both teams showed a strong defensive effort and a scrappy uptempo game on the offensive end. The game stayed close all afternoon, with neither team leading by more than six points at any point in the contest.
Forwards Sam Fuehring and Sophia Elenga went at it down low all game, exchanging key buckets in the last minute of the game. With under 30 seconds to play, Elenga came up with a huge steal and knocked down two clutch free throws to tie the game at 56.
The Cardinals’ Sam Fuehring responded with a layup to push Louisville ahead by two points with three seconds to play, sealing the 58-56 victory for her squad.
Fuehring grinded out the entire contest and ended up with a game-high 18 points and nine rebounds on the afternoon.
In spite of the loss, the Devils started off the game strong against their second Top 10 opponent of the season. ASU led 41-37 through three quarters of play, but got outscored 21-17 in the fourth quarter. The team committed costly turnovers down the stretch to allow to a scrappy Louisville team to escape with a two-point victory.
Throughout this young season, the Sun Devils have adopted this mantra of being unable to finish in big games.
In the second half, Courtney Ekmark went cold from the field. The Arizona native knocked down a pair of three pointers in the first half, but went scoreless for the rest of the game.
Similarly, Sun Devil guards, Robbi Ryan and Reili Richardson struggled, only scoring 12 points combined, with each shooting 2-7 from the field respectively.
With just under six minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Reili Richardson committed two crucial turnovers, allowing Louisville starting point guard Dana Evans to rattle off six consecutive points, giving the Cardinals the lead.
Louisville senior Asia Durr has a tough day from the field early, converting just five of her 18 shots in the game. However Durr made an impact down the stretch, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter while playing aggressive defense.
ASU struggled again in the fourth quarter, but the No. 5 Cardinals still narrowly escaped a Sun Devil team who is incredibly hungry to prove themselves against national competition.
Just a day later, ASU blew out an overmatched Southern Illinois squad 82-38, further cementing their place amongst the nation’s Top 25 teams.
Charli Turner Thorne’s squad is putting the nation on notice. The Devils can compete neck-and-neck with the nation’s top programs and take care of business against anyone else.
As the Devils push toward national prominence, weekends like this serve as a reminder to what a blooming program in women’s college basketball looks like.
The No. 19 Devils host the ASU Classic next weekend in Tempe, with their next game coming against Louisiana Tech (4-2) on Dec. 1 at 1 p.m.
