(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)
Friday night would be one the Arizona State women’s basketball team would want to forget, as the Sun Devils lost to No. 6 Stanford 80-41 in Palo Alto.
The team was plagued by yet another slow start, but this time they showed no signs of digging themselves out of the hole.
By halftime, ASU was down 40-18, with the culprits being both menacing defense by Stanford and the Sun Devils’ inability to hit open shots. They made a total of five shots to shoot 21% from the field.
On the other end, the more talented Cardinal were getting everything to fall, whether it be easy baskets at the rim or from long distance. They shot an impressive 70% from the field and 50% from three-point range.
It was more of the same in the third quarter with ASU hitting only two total shots. The Stanford trio of junior guard Lexie Hull, senior guard Kiana Williams and sophomore guard Haley Jones combined for 18 of 20 points in the quarter for Stanford. At the end of the third, the lead was up to 35 points.
The only bright spot for the Sun Devils was the beginning of the fourth quarter when they hit four of their first five shots, including three straight from sophomore forward Eboni Walker. After junior guard Taya Hanson’s three pointer with 6:44 remaining, ASU would not make another shot until 2:38 was left.
By then, both teams’ backups were in, but the Cardinal were still showing constant energy and effort on both ends.
Throughout the entire night, Stanford was the more aggressive and physical team, out-rebounding ASU 48-21. It also had six blocks and 10 steals for the game. Even when the outcome was inevitable, the Cardinal still dove for loose balls, forced jump balls and contested shots.
After last week’s win over Washington State, ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said she believes the more aggressive team is always the team that wins. Everything the team did well in that game completely flipped in this one.
Stanford’s experience and depth was on full display, with four Cardinal scoring in double digits, including Hannah Jump’s 17 points off the bench. The length of their bigs forced tough shots in the lane all night for ASU, who were limited to 14 points in the paint compared to Stanford’s 36.
Walker led all Sun Devils with 11 points on 4-6 shooting for the night.
With only two games left in the regular season, ASU will have to go back to the drawing board and somehow fix its shooting woes in time for the Pac-12 Tournament.
The Sun Devils close out the weekend playing California on Sunday at 2 p.m. MST.
