ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils ride hot start to tournament sweep over Saint Mary’s

(Photo: Troy Tauscher/WCSN)

Arizona State Women’s Basketball is 3-0 for the first time since 2017 as they defeated Saint Mary’s 62-53 at Desert Financial Arena Monday night.

Nine of the 11 Sun Devils scored as the team shared the duties on Monday night. Four Sun Devils tied for the team high in points with Taya Hanson, Eboni Walker, Sydnei Caldwell and Bre’yanna Sanders each scoring nine points.

“It’s absolutely that kind of team this year,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We’re really trying to build so that there’s someone out there that nobody is guarding when we get to the Pac-12. If you’ve got someone who’s not looking to aggressively score, then you’re playing four on five.”

The Sun Devils had a glaring advantage in two major statistics: turnovers and points off turnovers. The Gaels turned the ball over 23 times compared to the Sun Devils’ 10 turnovers, while the Sun Devils took advantage of those turnovers by scoring 25 points off of them compared to the Gaels’ six points.

In Turner Thorne’s “Tip from the Tunnel” posted before every game on the Sun Devil women’s basketball Twitter, she emphasized that one of the keys to the game would be keeping Saint Mary’s off the three point line. The Gaels attempted just eight three pointers.

“We worked hard at being good at defending the three point line,” Turner Thorne said. “The trade off was that we got beat on some backdoor cuts and overplayed a little bit too much at times.”

The Sun Devils got off to a hot start, building a nine point lead in the first quarter behind freshman Jaddan Simmons’ six points. Big gaps in the Gaels’ defense led for her three easy layups.

“My teammates believe in me,” Simmons recalled. “We all make mistakes and I had to take that into consideration today. I felt a lot more poised.”

Turner Thorne shared her thoughts about the team’s offensive improvement.

“I think our offense was a lot better today, we just missed some shots in the second half,” Turner Thorne said. “This tournament was so great for us. Those three teams are perennial winning programs, and it was really good for us to get these games under our belt.”

The Sun Devils grabbed some momentum at the end of the quarter as another freshman, Katelyn Levings, dropped in a three just before the buzzer to build the 21-12 advantage.

ASU would expand on that lead in the second quarter as they went on a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 30-17 behind Walker’s three, another Simmons basket, and a Caldwell easy bucket. Later it would get up to a 16 point lead at 35-19 behind Sanders’ solo 5-0 run.

“It’s a great opportunity. I played under some really good players, so to be able to show some leadership to the younger players is really important to me,” Sanders said.

ASU would beat the buzzer for the second straight quarter as this time it was Caldwell scoring in transition to put the Sun Devils up 41-29 at the intermission.

The scoring spread throughout the roster as mentioned above and that theme kept going in the third quarter. Walker, Hanson, Mbulito, Caldwell, and Jamie Loera each scored in the period. Hanson would start and finish the scoring in the quarter, first by going one of two from the free throw line and then hitting a three with 35 seconds remaining to put the Sun Devils up 53-39 at the end of three quarters in Tempe.

The gritty Gaels of Saint Mary’s would not go away. Taycee Wedin, who hit three of the Gaels’ four three pointers, hit one of those to begin the period which brought the deficit to nine. The Sun Devils made sure that was the last time she would score the basketball, making it so that anyone but her would beat them.

After each Saint Mary’s mini run, the Sun Devils would respond with a basket or two of their own to keep the distance. Hanson hit three of four free throws down the stretch to put things away.

Turner Thorne gave injury updates on Maggie Besselink and Jayde Van Hyfte. Van Hyfte will miss the remainder of the season and undergo knee surgery.

“It’s really hard for Jayde,” Turner Thorne said. “She has an opportunity at home with a surgeon to where she can be more pain-free. We never want anybody to play in pain.”

ASU hopes to have Besselink back Friday, but won’t rush her back onto the floor.

Turner Thorne also made sure to applaud Global Sports Events for making sure the tournament went smoothly without any hiccups.

“I want to thank everyone involved with ASU Athletics and with Global Sports because with all of the issues and games being cancelled, with Antigen and PCR testing every day, we were all over it,” Turner Thorne said. “We didn’t cut any corners and made sure that was a priority.”

The Sun Devils will begin a historic conference schedule on Friday when they host USC at 5 pm MST. For the first time since the Pac-12 expanded to 12 teams in 2011-12, teams will play each other twice in a 22-game conference schedule.