No. 25 ASU women’s basketball dominated from start-to-finish as the Sun Devils complete the season sweep of No. 23 Cal with a 57-42 win Sunday.
After getting blown out by the unranked Stanford Cardinal Friday night, the Arizona State Sun Devils were at one of their lowest points of the season.
The 74-50 loss was the cherry on top of four losses in the past five games.
What did they do about it?
They dominated the No. 23 California Golden Bears for 40 complete minutes. A poor outing by Cal and an exceptional performance from Kianna Ibis and the Sun Devils gave them a 57-42 victory.
Cal went a poor 1-of-11 from beyond the arc in the first half, scoring just 22 points. The strong defense led by Kiara Russell and Charnea Johnson-Chapman held the Golden Bears scoreless for the first seven minutes of the game.
ASU led all 40 minutes of the game, in large part due to the strong offensive outings by Courtney Ekmark and Reili Richardson.
Ekmark continuously found the right spot at the right time to finish with a team-high 12 points. Richardson scored just two points, but was responsible for a large portion of the scoring tonight, leading the offense and dishing out seven assists.
Sunday’s win was huge for ASU, as they seemed to be playing their style of basketball, and got a few bounces their way for a change.
Shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor, the convincing victory could not be a stronger start to the second half of Pac-12 play for ASU. They now stand in fifth place with a 6-4 conference record.
Next: ASU Basketball: Stanford dominates Sun Devils in rematch
Up next for the Sun Devils will be battles against both Washington and Washington State in Tempe next Friday and Sunday.