(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
For much of the second half, it looked as if it was going to happen again to the Arizona State women’s basketball team.
Instead, for the first time all season against a Top-10 opponent, the Sun Devils dug their heels into the hardwood and defeated the No. 10 Oregon State Beavers 79-76 in double overtime.
The Sun Devils finally tasted victory in Corvallis, beating a Top-10 opponent after their previous four attempts this season had all ended in single-digit defeats.
After a strong first half that saw the Devils up on the scoreboard 33-26 and an early Charnea Johnson-Chapman layup in the third quarter that pushed the lead up to nine points, the Devils slowly watched their lead dissipate over the next quarter and a half.
Johnson-Chapman’s layup, which was a rarity on a day she went 2-6 from the field, also commenced a dry spell for the Devils of over six minutes from the field.
The next field goal for the Sun Devils came on a jumper from Kianna Ibis, who was on fire yet again on Sunday, tallying 28 points. Those points were a game-high for Ibis, nine more than the next highest scorer, Mikayla Pivec of OSU with 19 points.
In those six minutes, the Beavers cut the nine point deficit down to four, and back-to-back threes from Aleah Goodman and Katie McWilliams had Oregon State ahead for the first time since late in the first quarter.
From there, both teams traded blows, and after another Kianna Ibis jump shot found the net with six seconds on the clock. It looked as if the Sun Devils were finally going to secure their first win over a top-ten opponent this season.
Instead, Mikayla Pivec easily slipped inside Sun Devil defenders to get the tying basket with two seconds remaining.
But the wind never left the Sun Devil sails. Freshman Iris Mbulito, who has really come on these past two weeks and had a marvelous nine point performance off the bench, showed why she was a coveted recruit for the Maroon and Gold with an explosive take to the basket to give the Devils a 64-62 lead with 2:19 left.
Oregon State would score four unanswered points to possess a slim lead with under a minute to play. The hero of extra time for ASU, Reilli Richardson, scored in the lane to tie the game at 66 a piece.
After a Pivec jumper clanked off the front iron as the horn sounded, the game would head to a second overtime to decide a winner.
It was just over 90 seconds into the second overtime period where Richardson would connect on the biggest shot of the game, after looking for Ibis in the post, Richardson realized the space she had around her, pulled the trigger and gave the Devils a 71-68 lead as the ASU bench erupted with joy.
The Beavers would not go away quietly, but some clutch free-throws from Kiara Russell and Richardson, would help the Devils hold on to secure their finest win of the season.
The joy and perhaps more importantly relief from the Sun Devil bench was evident as they celebrated a marquee win that pushed them right back into the hunt for the Pac-12 title. This team had gone through their four toughest games of their conference season, in succession no less, with a 2-2 split.
Of course, that number could have very easily been 4-0, or 0-4 for ASU after two wins by a combined three points and two losses by single digits. If anything, the results of this gauntlet stretch for the Devils have been more indicative of the top-to-bottom strength of the Pac-12 conference.
Arizona State now sits in the fifth position in the PAC-12 standings, two games behind Utah and Oregon State. However, with wins over both teams in the past month, the Devils currently hold the tiebreaker over the Utes and Beavers if such scenario were to play at by season’s end.
ASU needed this win. The sense of urgency was palpable in Corvallis on Sunday for the Devils after a season where signature wins repeatedly slipped through their grasp like sand. After a while, quality losses don’t mean much if there aren’t quality wins to offset them. The Sun Devils knew that on Sunday, and the finally have their seminal win of the season.
Side Notes
Oregon State left a lot of points on the table at the free-throw line, going 14-23 on the day.
Per usual, ASU’s size advantage in the low block showed up in the statsheet again in Corvallis. The Devils sported a decisive advantage in defensive rebounds (35-28) and blocks (6-1).
One of the main reasons their advantage dwindled in the second half was the Devils poor three-point shooting, going 0-6 from behind the arc in quarters three and four.
Despite erasing that nine point ASU lead, Oregon State only shot an abysmal 29 percent from the field in the second half.
Outside of Taya Hanson, everyone who saw time on the floor for the Devils on Sunday ended up in the scoring column.
Up Next
After surviving an incredibly difficult stretch of four games against ranked opponents, ASU will get a reprieve in their schedule over the next three weeks. The Devils next six games are against the bottom six teams in the Pac-12, starting this Friday with a home game against UCLA, followed by a Sunday matchup with USC, also at Wells Fargo Arena.
