No. 25 ASU women’s basketball suffered their fourth defeat in five games and the worst loss of the season losing 74-50 at Stanford.
It was a forgettable night in Palo Alto Friday for Arizona State as they were handily beaten by the Stanford Cardinal 74-50 handing ASU their largest defeat of the season.
The story of the game was Stanford’s offensive rebounding and forced turnovers. After being out-rebounded in the first meeting three weeks ago, the Cardinal edged the Sun Devils on the glass 33-27 with Stanford grabbing 11 offensive rebounds.
A large part of Arizona State beating Stanford in Tempe earlier this month was second chance points as ASU outscored Stanford 22-2. In Friday night’s game, Stanford edged ASU 11-5.
It was a rough start for the Sun Devils turning the ball over six times in the first quarter. Arizona State leads the Pac-12 in fewest turnovers per game with just 11 a game. The Sun Devils finished the night with 14 turnovers resulting in 16 points for Stanford.
The Cardinal played suffocating defense all night as the Sun Devils scored no more than 14 points in a quarter. Despite nine Sun Devils scoring, guard Robbi Ryan was the team’s leading scorer with just 11 points.
Stanford got big contributions from everybody with guard Brittany McPhee scoring a game-high 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting as she reached 1,000 career points early in the fourth quarter.
Also finishing in double digits for the Cardinal were guards Marta Sniezek and DiJonai Carrington. Sniezek, who set a career in three pointers in a game in the first meeting, set a career-high in points in a game with 13. Carrington finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Stanford shot 49 percent from the field with Arizona State shooting 37 percent from field, including 1-of-12 from 3-point range.
Head coach Charli Turner Thorne picked up a technical foul in the fourth quarter after an offensive foul was called on ASU. Seeking to get an explanation, Turner Thorne stepped on the court with Stanford attempting to inbound the ball and was T’d up.
Next: ASU Basketball: Ibis, Ekmark lead Sun Devils to win over Colorado
With the defeat, Arizona State drops its record to 14-7 and 5-4 in Pac-12 play and faces another tough game Sunday afternoon in Berkeley against No. 23 California. Tip off is at 4 p.m. MT and it can be seen on Pac-12 Network.