ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils’ poor offensive performance leads to Utah victory, 65-51

Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN

After putting together their best defensive performance on Friday, ASU (8-4) went in the complete opposite direction against Utah (4-9), losing to the Utes 65-51 on Sunday.

Utah got off to a hot start, leading the Sun Devils 10-2 before ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne had to call timeout. Utah controlled most of the game shooting 51 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range.

“They punched us and kept punching,” Turner Thorne said. “They were the more aggressive team, the more aggressive team is going to win ten times out of ten.”

The Sun Devils were short-handed once again due to COVID-19 protocols, missing freshman forwards Maggie Besselink and Katelyn Levings, and junior forward Iris Mbulito. Turner Thorne discussed the challenges of playing with the limited roster, and was looking forward to getting a healthy team back next week.

“Definitely this is a tough weekend, to play so short-handed,” Turner Thorne said. “We’re not a team that plays 6 or 7, we aren’t in that kind of shape. Plus everybody on our team had to sit for about a week and half, contact tracing and everything. So that showed up today.”

The game was still manageable at halftime with Utah leading 32-19. Yet, the game quickly became out of reach in the third quarter as Utah’s Kemery Martín took over. She scored 11 out of Utah’s 13 points to begin the second half and did not miss a shot until four minutes left in the quarter. She finished with 25 points and went 5-5 from deep.

“We just left her open for a lot of her shots, and just let her create,” freshman guard Jaddan Simmons said. “That was mainly on us. We let her get hot, which we know that we can’t ever do again.”

Utah led by as much as 24, but the Sun Devils kept fighting into the fourth quarter. The team was attempting its largest comeback in program history since scoring 20 unanswered points to wipe out an 18-point lead and beat Utah in February 2019. At one point, the lead was cut to 11 points, but it was too little and too late.

“We have to play harder.” Turner Thorne said. “People run right past you, you give up layups in transition, that’s like a high school game,”

ASU shot just 31 percent from the field. Simmons scored a team high 13 points, but struggled to get her team into any offensive rhythm.

“It’s always next woman up,” Simmons said about the depleted roster. “It’s just a matter of everyone stepping up and filling that role. We didn’t really do that today.”

ASU’s leading scorer, junior guard Taya Hanson also played poorly. Hanson never got into rhythm offensively shooting just 2-10 for five points.

Turner Thorne said the team did not come prepared. They had recently switched to a zone defense to make up for the missing players. ASU had to switch back to man defense to stop Utah’s offensive onslaught. They had not practiced the man defense since the team shut down in late December.

“I guess we’ll take the split, given the situation that we were in, and just getting healthy and getting back into game shape,” Turner Thorne said.

The Sun Devils will play at No. 6 UCLA (9-2, 7-2) on Friday. The last time the two met, UCLA narrowly won 63-59 in their first match-up on Dec. 6.