ASU Women’s Basketball: No. 22 Devils ready for showdown with Razorbacks

(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)

Crowd noise boomed into the Wells Fargo Arena during Wednesday’s practice for the Arizona State women’s basketball team as head coach Charli Turner Thorne pressed the team to communicate to combat the simulated hostile crowd.

This weekend, however, the virtual crowd will not be necessary, as the noise will instead be supplied by authentic basketball fans on Sunday evening. No. 22 Arizona State (1-1) travels into Fayetteville for their first true road contest against the Arkansas Razorbacks (2-0).

After being outscored 46-8 in the paint by No. 4 Baylor last weekend in the “Showdown on the Rez”, the Sun Devils look to clean up their play defensively as they enter SEC country.

Defensively, Arkansas poses a significantly different challenge for the Sun Devils than Baylor. Baylor dominated the Sun Devils in the paint, scoring a majority of their points down low. Arkansas, on the other hand, likes to shoot a high volume of shots from the perimeter.

While the season is still very new, the Razorbacks are averaging 82 points per game as a team, highlighted by a 98-53 dismantling of Northwestern State in their first game of the season. The Razorbacks are especially dangerous on the run.

Turner Thorne highlighted it as her primary concern, saying the transition defense will be put under pressure throughout the game.

“It’s going to be a tough matchup for our forwards,” Turner Thorne said. “They have to play perimeter defense for the entire game.”

The top performer for Arkansas so far has been junior transfer Alexis Tolefree, averaging 18.5 points per game and attempting almost 50 percent of all three-pointers for her team this year. In the Razorbacks buzzer-beating 66-65 win over UT-Arlington on Wednesday night, it was Tolefree sunk the game-winning shot in the lane. If this game is close down the stretch, expect the ball to be in Tolefree’s hands.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Devils will be up against a smaller opponent than Baylor, which essentially locked up the paint in the second half of that game. ASU lit up the scoreboard from behind the arc in the first half of the Baylor game, but looked out of sync from deep for much of the second half.

With the Sun Devils becoming more dependent on the three-point shot this season, this game could become a track meet with Arkansas. If so, it could lead to more inconsistency for the Devils.

Junior forward Jamie Ruden stressed that becoming more physical could prevent such inconsistency from happening.

“We’re trying to focus on being more physical in the post and call for the ball more aggressively,” Ruden said. “If we get those iso one-on-one opportunities, we’re going to try to score.”

Coming off an intense game against a team projected to go to the Final Four this year in Baylor, it will be important for the Devils to keep the intensity high in a hostile environment. This isn’t 2017’s Arkansas, a team that was dispatched by ASU 89-43 in Tempe. This Arkansas team is much improved and is capable of competing with the Sun Devils.

For Turner Thorne, the Devils still have a lot to prove in the next portion of their non-conference schedule.

“It’s a hit or be hit world in big-time BCS basketball, and we’re not hitting yet,” said Turner Thorne.

If Arizona State can regain its offensive balance and turn this game into a defensive battle, which has always been its style, things should go smoothly in Fayetteville for the Devils. This team proved they belong in the top-tier conversation of women’s college hoops by fiercely competing with No. 4 Baylor. Avoiding an upset in a hostile environment is the first step in proving they can stay there.