(Photo: Reece Andrews/WCSN)
Arizona State pulled off another Pac-12 upset, defeating No. 19 Oregon at Desert Financial Arena on Sunday afternoon.
The two foes battled back and forth with the Sun Devils eventually clinching a 55-49 victory after an impressive second half performance.
Arizona State (10-8) flipped the script on Oregon (14-6) as the two squads met in Eugene only five days prior to Sunday’s matchup where Oregon claimed a 14-point victory. Luckily for Arizona State, Sunday had no resemblance to Tuesday.
“We just stayed connected, we really played as a team,” senior guard Ayzhiana Basallo said. “I feel like in the second half of the earlier game this week we weren’t connected and we were just letting all of these bad things happen.”
The Sun Devils secured the victory by way of arguably their greatest strength, defense. Arizona State held Oregon to 24 points under their season average as the Ducks offense entered the day scoring 73.6 points per game this season.
That number is especially impressive when considering that this was only the second time all season that the Ducks have been held to under 50 points. The first time came on Friday night in Tucson when Arizona held Oregon to 48 points. The two losses to the state of Arizona’s Pac-12 programs marks an uncommon rough week for the Oregon program.
Defense along with rebounding was the determining factor late in the game. With just under two minutes remaining in the game, Oregon junior guard Endyia Rogers knocked down a layup to cut the Arizona State lead to one. From that moment on, Oregon missed its final six shots.
Offensive rebounding was vital to the victory as Arizona State extended possessions and ran chunks of time off the clock in the final minutes of the game. The biggest rebound and arguably most crucial play of the day came from sophomore forward Katelyn Levings, who snagged an offensive rebound off a missed free throw from fifth-year forward Mael Gilles. Levings was fouled after securing the board before knocking down both of her free throws to put the Ducks away.
“Everyday we work on rebounding and I could see where it was coming off,” Levings said. “This is my one big role for the team so I know that if I don’t do anything else in the game, I was going to grab this ball.”
While times have been tough for Oregon, Arizona State has had plenty of reasons to smile over the past weekend. However, the first half of Sunday’s game was not one of them. The Sun Devils shot a concerning 7.1 percent from the field in the first quarter. The cold streak leaked into the second quarter as Arizona State had only made 1 of its first 20 shot attempts until senior guard Taya Hanson drilled a corner 3.
Despite an ugly offensive performance in the first half, the Sun Devils were still within striking distance, only trailing 23-20 heading into halftime. At that point, the Sun Devils had hit 2 of 12 from three and posted a field goal percentage 0f 18.8%. The Ducks failed to take advantage as their offense was not much better, going 3 of 10 from three point range with an overall field goal percentage of 30%.
Oregon did an excellent job of getting its size, 6-foot-7 Prince and 6-foot-5 redshirt forward Nyara Sabally inside matchups against shorter Sun Devil guards. Somehow, the smaller Sun Devil defenders held their own, forcing turnovers and missed shots in battles that looked like David versus Goliath.
“We’re tough…if you would have watched us in November, we wouldn’t have done that,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We weren’t as tough, we weren’t as physical. It’s coming, we’re getting better.”
The lone bright spot on offense for the Sun Devils in the first half was Basallo. The transfer from San Jose State scored the team’s first bucket of the game, a 3-point bomb from multiple feet behind the arc. Her addition of 10 points off of the bench was instrumental in keeping the Sun Devils competitive during scoring droughts.
“Charli gives me the green light so I can shoot whenever I want,” Basallo said. “Obviously that gets my teammates open so just being aggressive on offense will help everyone else.”
The victory resembled Arizona State’s upset of then No. 24 Colorado from a few weeks ago with an excellent defensive performance overshadowing a lackluster offensive display. The question still remains of how impressive the team may look if it can pair a great offensive night with a great defensive night.
“The sky’s the limit for this team,” senior guard Jade Loville said. “We’re young, but we are continuing to grow.”
Now with its matchups against the Pac-12 Oregon schools in the past, it’s time for Arizona State to focus on the team from Tucson. Arizona State is scheduled to take on its bitter foe, Arizona, on Friday in Tempe and Sunday in Tucson. The Wildcats will pose a plethora of challenges to Turner Thorne’s squad.
“They’re super experienced and they’re tough,” Turner Thorne said. “I’m just excited that we are growing our toughness muscles so I’m feeling really good about matching them in that area, a lot better than I was a week ago coming home from Stanford.”
Although the Sun Devils have already pulled off two victories over ranked Pac-12 opponents this season, the same will be required next weekend to become victorious. They have the blueprint, the question is whether or not they do the unthinkable once again.
