ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils fall on USC buzzer-beater 60-58

(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)

TEMPE – After three losses and one forfeit, Arizona State Women’s Basketball is looking to end the year with a positive record.

A win against USC would have been one way to reach that goal.

However, the Sun Devils struggled on Thursday night, and fell to the Trojans 60-58 on a buzzer-beater from USC junior guard Alyson Miura.

Poor shooting rarely leads to wins, and for the Sun Devils that was just the case on Thursday. Both teams started slow out of the gate, shooting a combined 8-33 in the first quarter. ASU missed its first six attempts.

The scoring struggles were the point of emphasis in the game and inconsistency has been a theme for both in 2021-22. The Sun Devils and Trojans both have one reliable scorer, and when they are not showing up, the teams have dealt with streakiness from their secondary weapons.

ASU’s top scorer and the No. 3 scorer in the Pac-12 Conference, senior guard/forward Jade Loville, was able to support the scoring for the first half, scoring nine of the Sun Devils’ 23 points. As for the remaining starters, it was the complete opposite, as they shot a combined 13.6% from the field. Loville would lead all scorers with 22 and the Sun Devils’ starters kicked it up a notch and scored all but five points.

USC’s top scorer and the Pac-12’s No. 6 leading scorer, sophomore forward Jordyn Jenkins, was absent from Thursday’s game due to an injury suffered in its last game against Colorado. However, this was not a problem, as the Trojans were able to string together solid scoring possessions and were much more efficient than ASU. USC put up 18 less shots than ASU and converted on the same amount.

ASU out-hustled the Trojans throughout the entirety of the contest. The Sun Devils had a fire lit under them as every loose ball seemingly ended up in their hands. Each possession felt like a mismatch on the boards. The Sun Devils had every position rebounding, but head coach Charli Turner Thorne was not pleased with how the team failed defensively.

“Well, I mean, you got to play defense at this time of year,” she said. “And that is all we talked about going into this game: play 40 minutes of defense, play 40 minutes of defense and we just didn’t do that. Everything that we talked about preparing for the game, during the game, we needed to be more consistent and we need to be more disciplined.”

Though it was a slow scoring night and a shameful defensive performance, the Sun Devils were able to execute on the boards with 20 offensive rebounds. Despite not being able to convert on second chances, the Sun Devils had twice as many shot attempts as the Trojans in the first quarter. These opportunities were in the hands of ASU senior forward Mael Gilles and sophomore forward Katelyn Levings, who combined for 12 offensive rebounds and 23 total rebounds.

“That is the type of rebounding effort we need,” Turner Thorne said.

One of the Sun Devils’ main weapons has been getting the ball into the paint, and the Trojans would simply not allow that to happen on Thursday. The Sun Devils got blocked five separate times within the first half. The Trojans looked to shut down ASU’s athletes like Loville and Gilles and it was effective until players started getting sloppy. The Sun Devils found themselves at the line rather often.

With only eight players dressed on Thursday, all hopes are for the Sun Devils to have a majority of their roster back before the Pac-12 Tournament. Even with the tournament right around the corner, ASU is now focused on committing to their game on Saturday against UCLA in its final home contest of the year.

“We really want to come back and play our best basketball on Saturday,” Turner Thorne said.