ASU Women’s Basketball: Utah holds off Sun Devils’ late-game rally

(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)

The results of Sunday’s game were decided before the second half even started.

Slow starts and first-half struggles have been a cause of concern for the Sun Devils, but their 72-63 loss to the Utes emphasized this issue. Utah limited Arizona State to a season-low four first-quarter points. The Sun Devils could not find the bottom of the net and shot only 15.4 percent from the field.

The struggles on the offensive end were problematic but not as significant as their holes on the defensive end. Utah entered the game as the second-best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12 and made their presence known behind the arc. Leading the charge was freshman Gianna Kneepkens, who buried two 3s in the opening quarter.

“You can’t hope they miss… they’re going to hit some,” Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne explained of Utah’s 3-point shooting capability. “They were on, and their backs were against the wall and came in fired up and hungry. When our defensive is working on all cylinders, we don’t give anybody that.”

Even when Utah’s shots didn’t fall, they were able to grab their missed shots and generate second-chance points. The Utes out-rebounded the Sun Devils 14 to 8, with five rebounds coming off the offensive glass.

“I didn’t think we came out with the execution that our coaches prepared us with,” Maggie Besselink explained on the team’s slow start. “We came out and let the game come to us, instead of us attacking the game plan.”

Arizona State’s offense encountered a major scoring drought in the first half. ASU scored its last basket in the first quarter at the 5:42 mark. The Sun Devils wouldn’t score again until Katelyn Levings made a layup with 8:39 left in the second quarter.

Once Levings took the seal off the basket, Arizona State would score 18 points in the second quarter. But the success on the offensive end did not translate to the defensive end. Utah continued to get to the charity stripe and find the open player behind the arc.

“Just readiness. Just come out ready. We can’t take the first punch. We have to throw the first punch. I think that’ll come, and I think we’re getting better,” guard Jade Loville explained on ASU’s need for avoiding slow starts. “Obviously, that didn’t happen tonight, but moving forward from this, we’ll take this one and we’ll adjust.”

Turner Thorne and her squad went into the half down 24 points, which isn’t ideal considering the best 3-point team in the conference was having a stellar day from the floor.

“It was a team effort. We talked, and then our coaches came in. We knew what we had to do, and then Charli restated everything we said,” Besselink said on the adjustments made during halftime. “We knew that’s how we should have started the game, but then we wanted to finish the game that way.”

The adjustments made during the break were enough to throw Utah off and put Arizona State on a steep uphill climb. Unlike the second quarter, the success on the offensive end carried over to the defensive end. ASU opened the third quarter on an 11-2 run and picked up their intensity on both ends of the floor.

The keys on the offensive side of the ball were driving to the basket and going to the charity stripe. In the first half, the Sun Devils only made one trip to the line, but their increased aggressiveness gave them seven attempts at the line. The increased attempts at the line allowed Arizona State to outscore Utah 20-9. By the end of the quarter, ASU had cut the deficit to 13 points.

With momentum on their side, it appeared the Sun Devils could obtain a lead. Senior Ayzhiana Basallo got hot from downtown, going three-for-four from the distance. Her nine points would get Arizona State within six points. Six points would be the closest the Sun Devils would get as the Utes would make two three-pointers that would push the comeback out of Arizona State’s reach.

“With two minutes, six-point game, I felt good,” Turner Thorne said on the Sun Devils’ closing. I felt like OK, we’re locked in. We got some stops, and I couldn’t believe how soft we played.”

Arizona State will travel to the Bay Area for a game against No. 2 Stanford on Friday, January 28 at 7 pm MST. Then on Sunday, they will travel to Berkeley where they’ll take on California at 1 pm.

“We just have to get better. This team is learning to win and control the boards,” Turner Thorne said. “You have to prioritize, and we got people in this program who haven’t figured that out yet the way we need them to… I think we have newness, and they’re learning.”