(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
After a season which saw the Sun Devils finish 22-13 and make the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight season, head coach Charli Turner Thorne and the No. 23 Arizona State women’s basketball program returns their entire roster from a season ago.
A balanced and deep offensive attack for the Sun Devils will be led by senior forward Kianna Ibis, ASU’s active career leader in points, rebounds and blocks. Ibis started all 35 games for the Sun Devils last season, averaging a team-high 12.9 points per game, while shooting 49.5 percent from the floor. She will be joined in the frontcourt by glass-cleaner Charnea Johnson-Chapman, who averaged 6.5 rebounds last year and versatile Jamie Ruden, who shot 37 percent from deep last year.
In the backcourt, junior Reili Richardson will reprise her role as the distributor in the Sun Devil offense. Richardson, who started 31 of 35 games for ASU last year, finished her sophomore season with a 3.46 assist-to-turnover ratio, good for fourth in the nation and first in the Pac-12. Robbi Ryan and Courtney Ekmark return to provide outside scoring, with each averaging just over and under 10 points per game respectively last season.
As for the newcomers, Turner Thorne put together a strong recruiting class that includes four-star prospect Jamie Loera as well as Jayde Van Hyfte. Internationally, the Devils welcome Taya Hanson, another four-star prospect, from Canada and five-star prospect Iris Mbulito from Spain, according to Prospects Nation.
Charli Turner Thorne’s squad garnered some preseason recognition when they were ranked No. 23 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Previously, the team was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 at Media Day in October, trailing last year’s conference champion Oregon, perennial contender Stanford, as well as Oregon State and California.
The Sun Devils aren’t the only team in the conference that return a plethora of experience, as the Stanford Cardinal has 12 players returning to a program that has made 11 straight trips to the Sweet 16. The Oregon Ducks received first-place votes from every head coach in the Pac-12, cementing themselves as the firm preseason favorite to repeat as conference champions.
If the Sun Devils have hopes of contending for the Pac-12 regular season championship, they’ll have to improve their record away from Tempe. During the 2017-18 season, ASU was 6-3 at home in conference play, but just 4-5 when they traveled away from the friendly confines of Wells Fargo Arena.
In non-conference play, the Sun Devils challenging schedule is highlighted by matchups with some of the nation’s powerhouse programs. On Nov. 11, the Sun Devils get an early look at No. 4 Baylor. A little over a week later, they travel to Las Vegas for a meeting with No. 5 Louisville, who reached the Final Four last year. Last season, ASU finished with a 12-5 record against out-of-conference opponents.
Pac-12 play gets started Dec. 30 with a trip to Tucson to play an Arizona squad that was picked to finish 10th in the conference. A two-week span from Jan. 11-20 features meetings with the top four teams in the Pac-12 preseason poll, as Arizona State hosts Stanford and California before traveling to Oregon and Oregon State.
The Sun Devils end conference play with that same two-week slate, going on the road to Berkeley and Palo Alto, before returning to Tempe to host the Beavers and Ducks.
Arizona State begins their season tonight at 8:30 p.m. when they host Incarnate Word at Wells Fargo Arena.
