(Photo: Brendan O’Keefe/WCSN)
Arizona State (1-1) experienced highs and lows during its first week of the season. The Sun Devils decimated Northern Colorado by 30 points only to fall in overtime to Minnesota three days later.
After a weekend to process the bitter loss, the Sun Devils are focused on this week’s challenges as they trek north to face BYU (2-0) on Wednesday afternoon before returning home to face Marist (2-1) on Sunday.
The Cougars enter the game with an average margin of victory of 19.5 points after they comfortably defeated Lipscomb 81-58 and Fresno State 80-64. The impressive Cougar offensive attack is led by sophomore guard Shaylee Gonzales, who is averaging 18.5 points per game despite only shooting 15.4 percent from 3. Gonzales, a native of Gilbert, Arizona, played her high school career at Mesquite High School where she was named the 5A conference and offensive player of the year. Her parents both played out their collegiate careers in-state at Grand Canyon University.
Gonzales and the Cougar attack will be reinforced by senior guard Tegan Graham who dropped 18 points in a BYU victory over Lipscomb. Arizona State struggled to limit Minnesota guard Jasmine Powell, who scored a team-high 21 points last Friday night. Surely, the Sun Devils hope to have more success this week than they did last week when it comes to defending opposing teams’ backcourts. Nevertheless, slowing down Gonzales and Graham will be a tough task.
As for Graham and Gonzales, they will be tasked with shutting down Arizona State guards Taya Hanson and Jade Loville. Hanson (12) and Loville (16.5) are the only Sun Devils averaging double figures in points per game. Whichever side wins the battle of the backcourts should find themselves in position to win the game.
Aside from the guard play, BYU will present an interesting matchup on the block with Arizona State. Sophomore Maddie Besselink has been impressive on the boards for the Sun Devils, grabbing 15 rebounds against Minnesota while no other Sun Devil tallied more than five. The 6-foot-3 forward will have her work cut out for her when she faces BYU center Sara Hamson. Standing at 6-foot-7, Hamson has already blocked seven shots on the season and will compete for boards with Besselink.
Upon returning home to Tempe, the Sun Devils’ focus will shift from BYU to Marist. The Red Foxes pose a different level of threat to the Sun Devils than BYU as they average only 57 points per game compared to BYU’s 80.5. However, Marist has held opponents to under 60 points in every game this season, including an impressive 67-50 victory over Vermont last weekend.
Sophomore guard Kiara Fisher led all players with 17 points, going 8-for-10 from the field. She added eight assists and five rebounds to her stat line as well. Fisher spent her freshman year at Syracuse where she appeared in 10 games and made one start before transferring to Marist. Her career with the Orange was highlighted with an 11-point performance by way of three 3-pointers against North Carolina in December of 2020.
Arizona State should receive a good look as to how Marist stacks up against larger schools later in the week as Marist takes on Arizona two days prior to its matchup with Arizona State. There’s no telling how a smaller school like Marist will react to a cross-country road trip against Power-5 opponents, but whatever happens in Tucson should help Arizona State better understand its opponent. Marist’s trip to state 48 will feature its first matchups against Power-5 opponents this season. Aside from the win over Vermont, the Red Foxes have defeated Drexel, 52-50, and fallen to American, 59-52.
From Powell of Minnesota, to Gonzales of BYU to Fisher of Marist, Arizona State will have defended a wide variety of talented backcourts in only its first four games. This experience should help the Sun Devils prepare for the difficult Pac-12 schedule that awaits them.
This week’s games provide an opportunity for Arizona State to move on from the frustrating loss to Minnesota. Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne was very disappointed with her team’s performance in the overtime loss.
“Basketball is a game of mistakes and we made all of them today,” Turner Thorne said postgame. “We had really bad decision making and positioning today.”
The quest to clean up those mistakes and move on will begin at 11 a.m. MST on Wednesday when the Sun Devils tipoff in Provo.
