With its first two-game conference homestand of the season against two ranked opponents from Northern California, No. 19 Arizona State women’s basketball started off the weekend with a 72-65 loss to No. 6 Stanford, dropping the Devils to 2-2 in Pac-12 play.
ASU’s offense for most of the game, especially in the first half, seemed to be completely out of sync. The Devils could not run their offense and execute plays.
Stanford’s suffocating defense took away ASU’s leading scorer in senior forward Kianna Ibis. Ibis scored only six points on the night. The Devils shot 28 percent from the field (10-36) in the first half while the Cardinal shot 57 percent (13-23).
“We are not playing good team offense,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We are not executing our game plan. The shooting percentage is not reflective of our shooting; it is reflective of our offense. And they know it.”
The Sun Devils also struggled from three-point range all evening, shooting just 4-19 on Friday night. The Devils relied on mid-range shots and inside looks for scoring opportunities because they could not get clean perimeter looks.
Without major contributions from its two leading scorers, Ibis and redshirt-senior forward Courtney Ekmark, senior Charnea Johnson-Chapman was the focal point of the offense. The center’s 16 points for the evening tied her career-high and it was her third college game scoring exactly 16 points against Stanford.
“If Charli tells me I need to score, I’m confident in my shot,” Johnson-Chapman said. “We work on it and we work on me scoring to be confident.”
After a sluggish 22 point first half, ASU came out of the gates on fire in the third quarter, going on a 13-4 run with 4:48 to go in the quarter. The Devils looked more aggressive and more lively in the offense, helping them close the gap to just one-point right before the end of the third quarter.
However, Stanford eventually proved why they are a Top-10 team in the nation down the stretch. A half-court buzzer-beater from DiJonai Carrington ended the third quarter and made the score 51-47 Cardinal, giving the momentum back to Stanford. Clutch baskets in the fourth from 6-foot-4-inch big Alanna Smith, who scored a game-high 25 points, iced the victory for the Cardinal, who improved to 3-0 in conference play.
“We need to pay attention to the details more,” Ekmark said. “That hurt us this game. I think we are all going to go home tonight and look at ourselves and see what we can do better to help the team because it is a quick turnaround against Cal.”
Indeed, the Devils only get a day of rest before taking on another ranked team on Sunday in No. 24 California. Similar to Stanford’s talented big Alanna Smith, Cal likewise has a talented big in 6’4 Kristine Anigwe, who is averaging over 21 points a game.
ASU has had trouble facing talented bigs like Stanford’s Smith as well as Baylor’s Kalani Brown and Lauren Cox in the loss in Fort Defiance in November.
“[Anigwe] is even a more dominant scorer than Smith,” Turner Thorne said. “Our low block defense is going to be tested, for sure.”
The Devils face the Golden Bears on Sunday at 5 p.m. MST.
