(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
No. 17 Arizona State’s trend of first half outbursts continued again on Friday night as the Devils won their sixth game of the season, taking down Southern University 69-47 at Wells Fargo Arena. The win is also their fourth-straight, led by Courtney Ekmark’s season-high 19 points.
Despite the lopsided victory for the Devils, it was not their cleanest performance, marked again by a tale of two halves. The first half for ASU saw them lead 42-19, shooting 50 percent (14-28) from the field while also making several trips to the free throw line. Southern fouled ASU 10 times in the first quarter, resulting in 10 made free throw attempts in 14 attempts.
ASU’s offense revolved mainly around an inside presence, characterized by ASU scoring 30 points in the paint compared to Southern’s 12. Kianna Ibis and Charnea Johnson-Chapman were both heavily involved in the paint, with point totals of 10 and 7, respectively.
However, the story of the night was Ekmark, who made a team-high three three-pointers and shot a perfect 6-6 from the line. The Arizona native credited her teammates for finding her when she was open.
“[My teammates] had a couple sweet dimes to me,” Ekmark said. “So that helps.”
While ASU lit it up in the first half, they did struggle to find consistency in the second half. ASU shot 35 percent (8-23) after the break and turned the ball over a number of times.
The Sun Devil offense ended the night with 14 turnovers, something Ekmark knows the team needs to improve on.
“I think that’s one of the main things we are trying to work on now which is playing focused on every possession,” Ekmark said. “We had some good possessions and we had some bad possessions tonight with our focus. If we want to be an elite team, we have to bring that every single minute that we are playing in. We have high standards so we are not happy with our focus tonight.”
Even in spite of the team’s lackluster second half effort, head coach Charli Turner Thorne was pleased to balance the minutes of her players against Southern U, who was on a four game losing streak coming into Friday night’s clash.
However, Turner Thorne attributed her team’s lack of focus throughout the week to it being ASU’s final exam week.
“I thought we played average tonight,” Turner Thorne said. “And I know [the players] feel the same way. It’s good though just to get the win and not have anybody really overplayed. Overall, it’s kind of a wake-up call for this team to know that this is not who you want to be.”
Despite a quick turnaround for the Sun Devils, Turner Thorne is excited for Sunday afternoon’s game on the road against Colorado State.
“We’re going to be finally playing against zone [defense],” Turner Thorne said. “We have not played against a possession of zone. It’ll be a good test. We need to be building our toughness muscle right now.”
The Devils fly out Saturday morning to Fort Collins and will play the Rams on Sunday at 2 pm.
