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Sun Devils seek first road win in weekend trip to Houston

(Photo credit: Sam Farsky/WCSN)

After beginning 2025 with arguably its best performance of the season in a 79-61 home win over Texas Tech, Arizona State women’s basketball will now hit the road to face yet another team from the Lone Star State: the University of Houston.

The Cougars come into Saturday’s matchup reeling after giving up a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter of their 74-55 home loss to No. 12 Kansas State. Houston shot just 20% from deep in the loss, somehow a whole twelve percentage points better than its 8% mark from downtown in its loss to Texas Tech in its Big 12 Conference opener last week. Those two games are indicative of Houston’s struggles from 3-point land that have plagued its offense all season. The Cougars have shot a measly 28% from the outside, 15th in the Big 12 just ahead of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Houston has faced four Power 4 opponents this season. In those games, it is 0-4, with an average margin of defeat of 16.25 points. 

3-point shooting will be key for the Sun Devils if they are to win their third game in a row on Saturday. In their four wins this season, the Cougars have held opponents to an average of 18.4% from beyond the arc. In its nine losses, Houston’s opponents have shot 35% from distance, nearly twice as good.

Much of the shooting responsibility, as it has all season for ASU, will fall on graduate guard Tyi Skinner. However, she’ll likely have to to improve on her 1-for-6 mark from Wednesday’s win over Texas Tech, to turn the Sun Devils’ 3-point shooting into an advantage against the Cougars. 

Houston’s offense incorporates a team-first attack, with three players averaging double-figures for coach Ronald Hughey’s squad. Senior guard Laila Blair leads all scorers with 11.8 points per contest. The Houston native, who attended high school 45 minutes from campus, became the first player in school history to be named First Team All-Conference in 2023 in the Cougars’ final year in the AAC. 

Blair is 0.2 points per game ahead of her backcourt mate, fellow senior guard Eylia Love. Love is averaging a career-high 11.6 points per game in her first year with Houston after stops at Georgia Tech and Louisville to begin her college career. The Kansas City-born Love, standing at 6-foot-1, also leads the Cougars with 7.3 rebounds per game. Rounding out the double-digit scorers is sophomore guard Gigi Cooke, who averages 11.3 points per game in her first year for Houston since beginning her college career with her hometown Maryland Terrapins last season.

Sophomore guard Kierra Merchant does much of the defensive work for the Cougars, leading the team with 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks despite standing at just 5-foot-7. Her tenacity heads a pesky Houston defense that is in the top half of the Big 12 in steals, turnovers forced per game, and scoring defense.

After pulling off a home upset against a Texas Tech team picked to finish ahead of them in the Big 12 preseason poll, ASU now takes on the only team picked to finish below them in the preseason poll. Down in Texas, ASU will be on the hunt for its first road win of the season.

A win on the road against the oft-outmatched Cougars could push the Sun Devils to the right side of .500 in conference play in their first year in the Big 12. Granted, three games is a small sample size. Still, if ASU wants to remain competitive down the stretch in a tricky conference full of tough teams, it needs to take care of its winnable games as they occur, and this matchup represents such an opportunity. 

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