(Photo: Brendan Belfield/WCSN)
On Sunday afternoon, the Arizona State women’s basketball team bounced back from its two-game losing streak with a blowout victory against the Marist Red Foxes, 82-53.
Arizona State’s transfers led the charge as guard Jade Loville finished with 21 points and forward Mael Gilles contributed 16 points, while leading the team in rebounds and steals as well. Both Loville and Gilles set career highs with those performances. Though starting guard Taya Hanson struggled to find the bottom of the basket, she contributed by distributing the ball, ending the game with seven assists.
“I think we play our best basketball when we are moving the ball, finding each other,” said Loville.
The Sun Devils started early with a 10-2 run in the first three minutes of the game. Arizona State scored a season-high 48 points in the first half led by dominant offensive performances from Loville and Gilles.
Defensively, the Sun Devils let the Red Foxes feel the pressure. Head coach Charli Turner Thorne followed the theme seen at BYU and sent out a full court press to cause disruption to the Foxes’ offense. The press worked effectively and by the end of the first half, the Sun Devils had created 16 Marist turnovers. The trend of defense leading to offense was a staple for Arizona State today as they scored 32 points off of turnovers, its largest amount all season.
“I think our defense led to offense today. We had a couple let ups but I think overall we really cracked them and shut them down,” said sophomore guard Jaddan Simmons.
The second half was no different for the Devils. Loville came out of the break on a mission, dropping 10 points in the third quarter with two of her five triples.
Marist came into the locker room at half shooting 61 percent from the field, and as a team, the Devils looked to shut that down. They did just that, holding the Red Foxes to a 48 percent shooting percentage for the game.
“Sometimes our defense is a little all or none, and our pressure outweighed the breakdowns that we had,” said Turner Thorne.
Turner Throne promotes a physical and high-powered defense to offense strategy, but it has been tough to maintain that prowess with only a nine-player rotation. With four players currently down to injury, the Sun Devils have still stuck to Turner Thorne’s years-long strategy of mass substitutions. The bench, however, found their rhythm against the Foxes’ and combined for 26 points.
“Our bench did well for us at BYU, but even better today,” Turner Thorne remarked after the second ASU win of the season.
The Sun Devils gave themselves multiple opportunities to score after governing the boards the entire game. Arizona State was able to snag 17 offensive rebounds that allowed for 20 second chance points.
Though struggling all year from downtown, the Sun Devils found the three ball working for them. As a team, they shot 42 percent from beyond the arc and 47 percent from the field.
“I thought that was a great team win, it was fun to be able to shoot the ball the way we know how to shoot the ball,” said Turner Thorne.
The Sun Devils tightly woven defense combined with an offense hitting on all cylinders gave them a dominant victory and a confidence boost as they head to Mexico to face the Houston Cougars on Thursday, Nov. 25.
