ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils use best shooting performance of season to beat Washington State 67-61

(Photo: Susan Wong/WCSN)

After a horrid shooting performance on Friday, the Arizona State women’s basketball team came back with an impressive response, nearly doubling its scoring output to win 67-61 over Washington State.

The Sun Devils shot 42 percent from the field, a season high that featured several contributors. Six players scored at least six points, led by freshman guard Jaddan Simmons’ 15 points and junior guard Taya Hanson’s 12 points.

“I think we just came out more aggressive and we just stayed connected throughout the game,” junior guard Jamie Loera said. “We just kept punching and when they would punch us, we’d come back on offense or on defense and get a stop or score.”

It did not look like ASU would have such a great shooting performance after the first quarter. The Sun Devils only shot 25 percent and struggled to finish at the rim. On the other end, Washington State standout freshman guard Charlisse Leger-Walker was doing it all herself, scoring 10 of the Cougars’ 15 points. She finished with 29 points for the day.

Yet the deficit was only two points due to Arizona State’s defensive intensity, which would continue for the entire game. The Sun Devils forced 14 turnovers altogether, which included several drawn charges and six steals.

“We didn’t have nearly as many breakdowns,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We did work harder and it was our grittiest game. It’s a complete defensive effort.”

The second and third quarters were where the Sun Devils fully hit their stride and took over on both ends. In the second, they held Leger-Walker to three points while shooting 53.8 percent on the offensive end. Freshman forward Maggie Besselink scored all six of her points in the quarter to lead the way. In the third, everything flowed offensively with ASU using a 19-3 run to grow its lead to 17.

“I think just playing off of each other and actually running the floor, trying to get more transition looks is really how our offense works, so I think overall we just did that today,” Simmons said.

By the end of the third quarter, frustration mounted for the Cougars. They shot only 3-11 and head coach Kamie Ethridge received a technical foul for her reaction to an ASU charge.

However, Washington State was not done yet. In the fourth quarter, they used a fierce full-court press that clearly rattled ASU. At one point, the Sun Devils coughed up nine turnovers in 12 possessions which led to 10 WSU points. With Leger-Walker’s 10 points in the quarter leading the charge, Washington State cut the deficit to three points with 1:30 remaining.

“They kinda threw that press out at us, and it did catch us a little bit by surprise,” Hanson said. “Within that, we just needed to stay poised … but I’m proud that we just stuck with it and didn’t let things bother us.”

Added Turner Thorne: “We’re not really into blowing people out. We just kinda like to pull it out at the end. We’ve been in this situation a lot so I know that this young team has a lot of confidence in how to close out games.”

That was as close as WSU would get for the rest of the game. ASU went 10-10 from the free throw line down the stretch to ice the victory. The team shot 84 percent (21-25) from the line for the game.

Another positive for the game was ASU’s overall physicality. It won the rebounding battle 42-24 while leading in points in the paint, 32-22.

“I’m just really proud of our team’s effort,” Hanson said. “We came into the game today and played with a lot of grit. Everyone contributes whether it’s scoring or not, like rebounding, steals, assists. It all goes into winning that game.”

The Sun Devils will take this all-around great performance into next week when they play at No. 5 Stanford on Friday and California on Sunday.