(Photo: Alex Roddier/WCSN)
In the first, and now only, game of its Washington road trip, No. 20 ASU took down the Washington State Cougars 61-46 Thursday night.
The victory improves the Devils to 7-4 in conference play and 16-6 overall. The Devils were initially scheduled to travel to Seattle from Pullman to play the Washington Huskies on Saturday. However, the team announced late Thursday night that Saturday’s game has been cancelled due to inclement weather and would not be made up.
Senior forward Kianna Ibis led the team in Pullman with 22 points on 10-21 shooting, her fifth conference game with 22 points or more. Junior guard Robbi Ryan got into double digits for only the second time in conference play with 13 points.
For the Devils, the game didn’t start out all so smoothly. ASU shot 29 percent in the first quarter and scored just 11 first quarter points and falling behind the Cougars 14-11. The Devils would outscore the Cougars by two in the second quarter but still trailed at the half 28-27. Washington State shot a respectable 43 percent from the field for the half and ASU’s offense didn’t seem to get a whole lot of flow going in the first two quarters of play.
Eventually, ASU dominated the second half as it played exceptionally well on both sides of the basketball. The Devils outscored the Cougars 21-9 in the third as Ibis and Ryan both scored six points in the quarter and ASU held Washington State to just two field goals in the quarter. Simply put, ASU contested Washington State’s shots very well and did not let the Cougars get very many clean looks, often leading to the Cougars attempting deep three pointers.
The fourth quarter was most of the same story for ASU. The Devils would proceed to finish the second half shooting 60 percent from the field while holding the Cougars to 21 percent in the quarter. The Devils offense in the second half revolved around its usual effective inside-outside attack. Ryan connected on three of ASU’s six three pointers of the game and ASU outscored the Cougars by eight in points in the paint 28-20.
ASU (7-4 conference) is now riding a three-game winning streak, having won over USC, Arizona, and now Washington State. As of Thursday night, they currently stand fifth in the Pac-12 Conference standings behind No. 17 Utah (7-3 conference). The Devils have a chance to move up to fourth if Utah loses to USC on Friday as ASU owns the tiebreaker over the Utes. For now though, ASU will travel back home and will have a week long break before its next game on Friday, Feb. 15 against Colorado in Tempe, a team that is winless in conference play as of Thursday.
