ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils end season with loss to Houston in consolation round of WNIT 50-48

(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)

The Arizona State Women’s Basketball team concluded its season Monday with a heartbreaking 50-48 loss to Houston in the WNIT Fort Worth Regional consolation bracket.

The Sun Devils led 46-39 with five minutes to play before things went sideways. Houston went on an 11-2 run to close out the game led by Laila Blair as she gave them the lead on a layup with just over a minute to play. A last-second shot by junior Taya Hanson clinked off the back of the rim ending ASU’s season.

“We’re all frustrated but in some way it was a good way for this season to end because we’ve been inconsistent all year and we have a lot of areas we need to improve on,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said.

Freshman forward Katelyn Levings, who scored a team-high 10 points alongside sophomore Eboni Walker, echoed her coach’s words.

“We needed to stay more disciplined on defense,” Levings said. “We always talk about controlling the boards and we did not do that today.”

ASU’s offense once again struggled to make shots after the tip as the Cougars started the game on a 6-0 run just 74 seconds into the action. Houston maintained a comfortable lead throughout the first quarter, even though the scoring had picked up for the Sun Devils. Six different players scored for ASU in the opening quarter but the Devils still trailed 21-12 heading into the second quarter.

Hanson wasted no time inserting herself into the offense in the second quarter, scoring the first nine Sun Devil points and cutting the deficit to single digits. Houston would bring the lead back up to 12 before ASU scored five quick points at the end of the quarter to make it 33-26 at the intermission.

The Sun Devils hit in the early part of the third quarter to keep the pressure on Houston. From the 6:03 to 1:10 mark, ASU would go on a 10-0 run to go from down five to up five. A late score by Houston with four seconds remaining in the quarter cut the lead to three but the Sun Devils still had the momentum on their side.

ASU finishes the grueling season 12-12 and Turner Thorne has high hopes going into next season.

“They got a little taste of the postseason and to have a sense of urgency,” Turner Thorne said. “I’m very hopeful that they got a sense of how important toughness is. There’s lots of lessons to be learned.”

Turner Thorne also spoke about the difficulty of playing during a global pandemic.

“This has been the most challenging season and was really hard,” Turner Thorne said. “We weren’t able to properly prepare, no returning starters, the daily COVID protocols and everything was so much more exhausting. I do appreciate this team wanting to play throughout the pandemic.”

Levings and Walker led the team with 10 points apiece and Walker also came up with four steals.

The Sun Devils finish 2020-21 at .500, marking the first time since the 2012-13 season that ASU finished with a non-winning record. With Bre’yanna Sanders the lone senior graduating, ASU will bring nearly all of its pieces back for next season.