(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
UCLA and the No. 16 Arizona State Sun Devils battled it all forty minutes, but the Bruins won the Friday morning clash 61-59 on Friday in Tempe.
Japreece Dean knocked down the game winning three-point attempt with 0:09 seconds to play. In a game where there was 12 lead changes and 13 ties, UCLA and Arizona State matched each other toe-for-toe down the stretch.
Rebounding became the theme of this game, as UCLA outrebounded the Sun Devils, 40-37, which lead to 34 points in the paint and 14 second chance points.
UCLA forward Lauryn Miller physically dominated ASU star forward Kianna Ibis, scoring 17 points to along with five rebounds on 8/11 shooting from the field. Miller and Michaela Onyenwere hounded Ibis all game long. Ibis went 4/12 from the field struggling to crash the glass and maintain position offensively against the bigger Bruins.
Despite Ibis’s struggles, Arizona State senior forward Courtney Ekmark knocked down three shots from deep, leading the Devils with 14 points for the game. Despite stellar shooting by Ekmark, Arizona State never led by more than five points, consistently missing defensive cues and failing to block out the bigger Bruins.
“That was one of the main things we were focused on going into the game, was rebounding,” Ekmark said. “That’s really disappointing, that is something we have been focusing on all year long.”
Arizona State point guard Reili Richardson began attacking the paint more, leading the team with 12 points, her last two becoming the biggest of the game. Richardson put ASU ahead 59-58 with just over a half-minute to play, taking Japreece Dean off the dribble and scoring a left handed euro-step layup to put the Devils ahead.
Dean matched Richardson’s clutch gene with 0:09 left, draining the eventual game-winning three pointer to give her 14 points, five rebounds and four assists in the game.
“We are always looking for Kianna and they were really focused on her,” Richardson said of ASU’s offense in the final minute. “There wasn’t much time left so I just made a move.”
Arizona State is coming off a road trip where they narrowly lost to No. 5 Oregon and defeated No.10 Oregon State. With March just over one month away, Arizona State Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne said her team took a step backwards after their upset of the Beavers.
“The thing that you don’t want to happen after a big win, kinda happened,” Turner Thorne said. “I think we were a little tired, let up a little bit. We did not rebound the way we needed to rebound.”
Arizona State was outscored 18-13 in the third quarter, and veteran Sun Devils Charnea Johnson-Chapman and Kiara Russell struggled, scoring a combined four points on the night.
“We still are a team that can be performing at a higher level than what we do,” Turner Thorne said. “I feel like we relax on defense or we squander a possession offense… then we get stuck.”
In a conference packed with five teams ranked in the Top 25 nationally, Arizona State now sits in the middle of the pack, at 4-4 in Pac-12 play.
ASU’s homestand continues on Sunday when they welcome USC to Wells Fargo Arena.
“This is definitely something that we ‘re not gonna take lightly,” Ekmark said of ASU’s next matchup. “You guys are definitely going to see a team that is boxing out and playing hard for the entire 40 minutes on Sunday.”
Tipoff between the No. 16 Devils and the Trojans is slated for 1 p.m. Arizona time. The game can be viewed on Pac-12 Network.
