ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils drop conference opener to Arizona, 58-53

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

With one of their worst all-around shooting performances in recent memory, the Arizona State Sun Devils (10-3, 0-1 Pac-12) dropped their Pac-12 conference opener, 58-53, to Arizona.

The Sun Devils started out the game strong. Despite a well-traveled opposing crowd, the Wildcats (12-0) looked uneasy to start the game. Due to their tough defense and fast break points, Arizona State was winning 12-10 after the first quarter, but almost everything went downhill from there.

The Wildcats outscored the Sun Devils 16-10 in the second quarter to take the lead and never looked back.

Arizona State finished the game shooting 30.3 percent from the field and 11.1 percent from behind the arc. Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne said that unlike her teams in the past, this team is either really on or really off.

“We’re like all or none,” Turner Thorne said. “We’ve been that way the entire season. It’s brutal. It’s like can someone get going?”

The Sun Devils did have one player get going for them, but it was not enough. Freshmen forward Eboni Walker really started to get going in the second half and finished with one of the best games of her young career, tallying 12 points and eight rebounds.

Even though Walker put on one of her best performances so far, she believes that she did not play any differently than she usually does. The freshman forward said that she tries to play the same every practice and every game whether that be against a rival or not.

“I just make sure I do my job within the team,” Walker said. “If I need to rebound for my team then that’s what I’m going to do. I don’t do things to put numbers on a piece of paper, I do things to for a team win.”

In the second half Arizona State had no answer for UArizona point guard Aari McDonald or forward Cate Reese. McDonald was beating ASU guards off the dribble and finishing in the paint, while Reese was grabbing rebounds and working her inside and outside game. The Wildcats pair combined for 37 points while Reese finished with a double-double (17 points and 10 rebounds), her fourth this season.

“I just thought we didn’t play them smart,” Turner Thorne said about guarding McDonald and Reese. “I didn’t think we played them the way we were supposed to play them. They’re really good if you let them play to their strengths and I think we let both those two players play to their strengths.”

Even though her team opened up conference play with a disappointing loss to their rival, Turner Thorne still found some positives to take from the game.

Arizona State’s bench outscored UArizona’s bench 35-6. Walker and senior forward Jamie Ruden led the way as they were the team’s top two leading scorers with 12 and 10 points.

Turner Thorne said that while she knows her seniors can and will play better it was still exciting to watch what her underclassmen can do.

“It was really fun. Our young kids are out there leading the comeback,” Turner Thorne said. “We have great seniors, I know that are seniors are going to play better, but in a game when they didn’t have their best stuff it was really fun to see those young kids step up and make some plays.”

Turner Thorne also touched on the fact that it has become a trend for her teams to shoot poorly and still be in games. While Turner Thorne said it is not a positive when your team shoots under 20 percent for the majority of the game, it is a positive that the Sun Devils can step up big on the defensive end and still hang around until the end.

“The fact that we probably didn’t execute either our offensive or defensive game plan and still had a one possession game down the stretch gives me a little bit of hope,” Turner Thorne said.

The Sun Devils will need to tune up their play as they head to California to play their second ranked Pac-12 team in as many games. Arizona State takes on No. 10 UCLA on Friday at 8 p.m.