(Photo Credit: Steve Rodriguez, Sun Devil Athletics)
The Arizona State Sun Devils improved to 3-1 after defeating the Providence Friars in their second game at Wells Fargo Arena this season, 86-65.
After a sluggish start from both squads to begin the game, ASU found their offensive niche in the paint. They scored 20 points in the lane during the half including a 12 point, six-rebound effort from redshirt senior center Joy Burke in the first 20 minutes.
Burke finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, but left the game in the beginning of the second half with what seemed to be an injury to her right leg. Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne said they had initially thought Burke had potentially broken her foot, but she confirmed that she is healthy.
Freshman forward Kelsey Moos played her best statistical game this season, racking up 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. The freshman from Edwall, Washington has started each of the four games this season and has looked more comfortable as the season has progressed.
“[Moos] is pretty relentless. She has a nose for the ball. She’s just a great rebounder. She takes a lot of pride in it, and she’s quick to the ball,” Turner Thorne said. “She’s deceptively quick to the ball, so rebounds other people on our team aren’t gonna get to, she gets to.”
After not scoring a point in the first half, sophomore guard Elisha Davis blew up for nine straight points to spark a 15-0 run in the middle of the second half. Davis finished with 11 points and five assists.
“I remember [Turner Thorne] telling me when I get in the game, ‘I need you,’ and she gave me that look like, ‘We’re counting on you right now because we have other people in foul trouble,’ ” Davis said. “For some reason I just thought, ‘Go, and don’t think, just play.’ ”
“[Davis] did a great job of just attacking. She’s been working on her vertical attack, finishing, and finding her teammates,” Turner Thorne said. “So happy for her to just go out and see her do what she can do. We needed her to.”
After scoring above 80 points just once last season, ASU has now scored 80-plus points in each of their three victories this season, and five Sun Devils put up double-digit points, led by 16 points from junior guard Promise Amukamara. They also scored 25 points off Friar turnovers and won the rebounding battle 48-32.
“This is our best rebounding performance by far,” Turner Thorne said. “We haven’t really dominated the boards yet, in any game, and so that was great to see.”
“What we focus on a lot is just defense, and allowing our defense to help our offense, so we’re not really a team that tries to score a bunch of points,” Davis said. “What we focus on is getting stops, and then putting the ball in the basket, so if that leads to more than 80 points a game, then there it is.
Providence, a team that had put up 100-plus points twice earlier in the season, were held to their second-lowest offensive effort of the year. They were led by junior guard Tori Rule’s 22 points and five rebounds. Tonight, the Sun Devils held the Friar offense to just 36 percent shooting from the field.
“We know, if we bring our defensive game, we can get stops and then transition which is how we like to get a lot of our points,” Moos said.
The Sun Devils will look to continue their success as they travel to Cancun, Mexico for the Cancun Challenge over Thanksgiving weekend which includes a match up on November 29th against No. 12 North Carolina.
You can reach Zac Pacleb on Twitter @ZacPacleb or via email at zacpacleb@gmail.com.
