(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Arizona State was down by just six after one quarter, but No. 6 Arizona outscored the Sun Devils 19-9 in the second period to open a 34-18 lead at the half and ASU never recovered in its 65-37 defeat in Tucson on Thursday night.
“Credit to U of A,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “They’re a good team and we have a lot of teachable moments all over the court.”
Senior Aari McDonald was the star for the Wildcats as she ran freely most of the night and ended up with 22 points, using five three-point baskets to her advantage.
On the ASU side, junior Taya Hanson was the lone scorer in double digits with 14 points.
“When you lose, the individual part doesn’t matter as much,” Hanson said. “It’s about the team. It means nothing if I don’t box out.”
Another bright spot for ASU is that freshmen Katelyn Levings and Jaddan Simmons continued to improve, each scoring six points while grabbing five rebounds between the two.
“We need to move on,” Simmons said. “We play again Sunday. If we sit here and dwell on it, it won’t help us on Sunday.”
A lot of things could be marked that sunk the Sun Devils on Thursday night, but the two stark differences were that ASU shot just 28% from the field, while turning the ball over 23 times.
Arizona took advantage of the Sun Devils’ 23 turnovers by scoring 24 points while shooting 43% and hitting 11 three-pointers.
“They didn’t shoot us out of it with our defense; I think they shot us out of it because we weren’t locked in aggressively,” Turner Thorne said.
She also reiterated that she still has a very young team on her hands.
“We were struggling with the physicality of the game,” Turner Thorne said. “You can’t let your offense affect your defense and we’re still growing.”
ASU led just once, at 2-0 one minute into the game. Arizona took their biggest lead with just over three minutes to play in the game at 29 points.
Another facet of the game the Wildcats excelled was the free throw line. Arizona had 17 attempts at the charity stripe, sinking 11 while ASU had just five made free throws in nine chances.
The bench is usually a strength for the Sun Devils, but that too was outplayed by one of the best teams in the nation. Arizona led in bench points 16-7, led by redshirt junior Shaina Pellington and freshman Derin Erdogan with seven of those 16 points.
The Sun Devils will look to bounce back in their final non-conference matchup of the season when they host San Diego at Desert Financial Arena on Sunday at 2 p.m MST. The game will air on Pac-12 Plus.
