(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
The No. 17 Arizona State Sun Devils traveled into the Bay Area with their sights set on maintaining their five game winning streak. Instead, California rode a blazing third quarter to a 69-60 victory, giving the Devils their first loss in almost a month.
Fresh off completing one of the most thrilling and incomprehensible comebacks of the season against Utah, the Devils’ spirits were riding high entering Berkeley for their final road trip of the season.
Through the first two quarters, the play on the court reflected the confidence flowing like a river through the team.
Sparked by seven first half points by Courtney Ekmark, who also added nine rebounds to her statsheet to lead the team, the Sun Devils were on top 32-25.
But if Ekmark was the shooting star for the Devils through two quarters, Kianna Ibis was the black hole. Ibis had one of her worst performances of the season, going 0-3 shooting and not recording a single point in the first half.
Their first half performance had the Devils leading going into the half, even with their star player shutout in the scoring column. And as the theme has been the entire year, as Ibis goes, so does the team.
The Devils couldn’t keep up the charade without their senior leader performing to her normal capabilities, and the bottom fell out once both squads emerged from their respective locker rooms.
Recee Caldwell, who banked in a three-pointer for Cal just as the first half ended, hit a quick triple to begin half number two and slice the Devils’ lead down to four.
Soon after, Asha Thomas caught liquid fire for the Golden Bears and hit a three-pointer of her own midway through the third quarter, knotting the game up at 35. Just a minute later, Thomas hit again from three, and Cal had the lead they would never relinquish.
Both Caldwell and Thomas were in the groove from deep all night long, Thomas finished shooting 57 percent (4-7) from three-point range and Caldwell did the same damage on one less shot (4-6).
As a team, Cal would finish with over 50 percent shooting from behind the arc. In this day and age in college basketball, if a team can have perimeter shooting that deadly, they will be tough to beat.
Arizona State may have been able to get a slight rebounding advantage over Cal (33-31), but Kristine Anigwe had her way down low with the Sun Devil defense the entire game. Anigwe tied Caldwell for game-high points with 20 and grabbed 15 rebounds to cap off her double-double night.
The top scorer for ASU was Reili Richardson, who had 12 points. Right in her wake was Courtney Ekmark, who finished with 10. However, the Devils just could not find a way to make up for the poor performance of Ibis, who didn’t record her first points until late in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of reach.
Ibis was out of rhythm throughout the entire game, finishing with three points on 1-11 shooting. This was an ugly game for Ibis any way you slice it, but it was particularly subpar when put in the context that this was the same California team that she put up 26 points against back on Jan. 13.
Up Next
Arizona State went into Bear country and got mauled. Coming off of the incredible Utah game, the team looked prime to make a late charge up the standings, but now this loss has sunk the Devils into the fifth spot in conference behind UCLA.
Up next for the Devils will be No. 7 Stanford, which beat ASU 72-65 back on Jan. 11. The Sun Devils can still climb the rankings with wins in their next three games: no. 7 Stanford, no. 12 Oregon State and no. 2 Oregon, but they have their work cut out for them after losing to their second unranked opponent of the season.
Side Notes
ASU moves to 18-7 on the season and 9-5 in conference play. Cal improved to 15-11 for the season and 6-9 in conference play.
Cal won despite having zero bench points. You read that correctly. ASU outscored the Golden Bears 24-0 on bench points, but Cal’s exceptional shooting more than compensated for their lack of depth tonight.
ASU won the rebounding game 33-31, and crashed the offensive boards more times than the Bears as well (14-11).
ASU also led in free-throw shooting, 83 percent (10-12) to 67 percent (8-12).
ASU was in front for more time than Cal (21:40-16:11) but the Bears led the entire fourth quarter on their way to victory.
