(Photo:Brooke Farber/WCSN)
Arizona State will face Cal on Sunday, donning some sweet pink uniforms in honor of breast cancer awareness.
ASU has faired well while wearing maroon so far this year, coming into this matchup boasting a 10-1 conference record after finishing off a season sweep of the Stanford Cardinal on Friday.
But while the victory over the 12th ranked team in the country was one of the biggest wins in school history, the Sun Devils can’t afford any sort of emotional letdown against the Bears if they hope to build upon their new three-game winning streak.
Cal is not by any a means a bad team, although they aren’t ranked in the AP Top 25, they do have the same Pac-12 record as Stanford and may prove to be an equal, or even bigger challenge to Arizona State on Sunday.
If ASU is going to avoid the upset (if you could call it one) they’re going to need to capitalize on these three keys to the game.
Forward Matchup
6-foot-3 forward, Reshanda Grey is Cal’s leading scorer with 18.2 points per game. Her size gives her a big time advantage against ASU’s undersized starting frontcourt of Sophie Brunner and Kelsey Moos, who each stand at just 6-foot-1. In order to counter that height advantage down low, Charli Turner-Thorne should turn to her biggest bench contributor, Quinn Dornstauder. The Canadian center is an inch taller than Grey, and while she isn’t exactly known for her rim protection, Dornstauder flashed the ability to do so late in the game against Stanford when ASU really needed it.
Perimeter Defense
The Cal Bears are one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the Pac-12. They don’t take many shots from deep, and they don’t make many of the ones they throw up, shooting just 30% on 335 attempts. It isn’t exactly their game plan to attack from behind the arc on offense with Reshanda Grey doing basically whatever she pleases down on the low block. But with elite perimeter defenders Promise Amukamara, Katie Hempen, and Elisha Davis the Sun Devils should be able to keep the Cal guards from driving and finding Grey, forcing them to jack up low quality triples.
Clean the Glass
This is an area where Arizona State has really been able to excel in all year. The Sun Devils rank third in the conference in defensive in rebound margin, with Sophie Brunner bringing in over seven a game. Cal doesn’t consistently grab a lot of boards as a team but both Grey and Brittany Boyd, rank within the top ten in the Pac-12 for individual rebounds. It’ll be a tough task for Davis and Amukamara to keep Boyd who’s actually a guard off the glass.
Prediction
While it’ll be tough for ASU to match the focus and determination that they played with against Stanford, the Sun Devils have the upper hand in this one because of Cal’s lack of depth and inability to hit the long ball.Watch for Arizona State to look a bit sluggish after the tip, possibly trail the Bears at half time, just to come roaring back in the second half and finish the contest with a double-digit win.
Tip off is at 2:00 p.m. MST time at Wells Fargo arena in Tempe, AZ.
