Sun Devils to match up with pair of HBCUs in homecoming road trip

(Photo via Maya Diaz/WCSN)

After leaving the Music City Classic up one in both the win and the loss column, Arizona State women’s basketball will embark on a cross-country journey to Baltimore, where it will face the Coppin State Eagles on Thursday, before making the hour-and-a-half drive to take on the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks on Saturday.

The Sun Devils (4-3) got themselves a hard-earned win over the South Dakota Coyotes on Nov. 27, taking the contest 95-88 behind 26 points from graduate center Nevaeh Parkinson off the bench, and a 20-point, six-rebound, seven-assist night from graduate guard Tyi Skinner. 24 hours earlier, ASU did not have the same fortune, falling 77-61 to then-No. 14 Kentucky in a game where the victors led for all but two minutes. 

After a high-variance weekend, the Sun Devils will look to find consistency as they travel across the country to the DMV to face the Eagles (5-4) and the Hawks (4-5) for the first time in program history. The trip serves as an opportunity for Skinner, junior forward Kadidia Toure, and junior guards Jalyn Brown and Kennedy Fauntleroy to return to their home state of Maryland, and it also serves as an opportunity for ASU to find its identity as a unit as it nears the end of its non-conference slate.

Lawrence Leads the Eagles

Senior forward Laila Lawrence spearheads the Coppin State attack both offensively and defensively. The Sun Devil frontcourt will have their hands full with the Lewisville, Texas, native, who averages 18.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game, all team highs. 

Lawrence is coming off her third consecutive game with 17-plus points and 10-plus rebounds, a 20-point, 10-board effort on Tuesday in a 72-70 Eagles win over New Jersey Institute of Technology. The only other Eagle averaging double figures is junior guard Angel Jones, who led the team with 23 points in Tuesday’s win.

Lawrence is in her second year with the Eagles and has been nothing short of a dominant presence on both ends of the court for third-year head coach Jermaine Woods. She racked up the accolades last season, winning the MEAC Defensive Player of the Year and being voted First Team All-MEAC while also picking up MEAC All-Tournament team honors.

Lawrence does the majority of her damage in the face-up game, keeping defenders guessing with a never-ending flurry of jab steps and pump fakes before knocking down a 12-foot jumper or powering her way to the rim. ASU head coach Natasha Adair may opt to re-insert Parkinson or senior forward Kennedy Basham into the starting lineup to counter Lawrence’s strengths. The pair came off the bench against South Dakota, the first time this season they have both been outside the starting lineup. 

As a team, Coppin State shoots just 29% from beyond the arc, which ranks 221st in the country. This works in the Sun Devils’ favor, who had trouble defending the outside shot in Nashville. The game will most likely be won or lost in the paint, where ASU has tended to dominate smaller teams throughout the season so far. If ASU can dictate the flow of the game and play to their strengths, they could pick up a win against the Eagles.

Haynes and Her Hawks

After battling Coppin State, the Sun Devils will leave Baltimore and drive an hour and a half to Washington D.C. to face Maryland Eastern Shore in the Coaches vs Racism Roundball Classic. The Hawks employ much more of a team effort across the board, but they still find most of their scoring from a single source: Zamara Haynes. The senior guard from Philadelphia is the only Maryland Eastern Shore player averaging more than eight points per game in 2024, scoring 14.6 points per contest for the Hawks, who rank 289th in the country in total offense. 

Much like Coppin State, the Hawks shoot poorly from the outside – just 21.5% as a team – and find most of their offense in the paint. Unlike Coppin State, Maryland Eastern Shore does not have an inside threat, and its tallest player, junior forward Lainey Allen, is just 6-foot-2. This bodes quite well for an ASU team that boasts the 6-foot-7 Basham and the 6-foot-3 Parkinson inside, in addition to 6-foot-3 graduate forward Maggie Besselink, who has played more and more minutes with each contest of the season.

Business Trip

Following a solid, yet unspectacular, showing in the Music City Classic, the Sun Devils will be expected to pick up two road wins on this trip that serves as an interesting test for Adair and her team. In past years, undisciplined ASU teams might have let the long flights or the supposed inferior competition impact their play and lead to disappointing results. This year’s team now gets its chance to prove whether or not it is any different. Adair has preached all season about this team’s abilities, and if the Sun Devils want to prove her right, they need to do what good teams do best: play to their strengths and demolish outmatched competition. 

The Sun Devils are facing off against two teams that play right into their hands as an inside-out focused offense and a team with a number of strong shot blockers. It will be up to ASU to take advantage and pick up a pair of road wins on Thursday and Saturday to open play in December.

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