ASU Basketball: Sun Devils defend home court in 75-50 win over Arizona

ASU women’s basketball‘s dominant third quarter sealed a win for the Devils over the University of Arizona 75-50 on Friday night.

Arizona State on paper should have had no problem with Arizona. The Wildcats came in as the worst offensive team in the Pac-12. They are only team scoring under 60 points per game. They were also the third-worst defensively.

However, the Sun Devils wouldn’t get off to an ideal start.

Arizona State failed to go up after the first quarter. They forced four turnovers and put up five more shots than the Wildcats, yet were tied after one at 16. Arizona shot 7-of-11 from the floor with a couple of threes.

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There were 10 total turnovers in the second quarter and the two combined for 33 percent shooting. The Devils managed to go on a small run to end the half however, going into the locker room up 27-23.

“At halftime, frankly, they just knew that they weren’t playing hard enough and they weren’t playing the way they can play,” said head coach Charli Turner Thorne.

The intensity picked up and the Sun Devils would go on to annihilate Arizona in the third quarter outscoring the Wildcats 25-5. Arizona State shot 68.8 percent in the third. Meanwhile, the Wildcats went on a six-minute scoring drought.

Robbi Ryan and Courtney Ekmark took over after halftime. The two combined for 24 of ASU’s 48 points in the second half while shooting 10-of-11 from the floor between them.

ASU would successfully close out the Wildcats and pick up the win 75-50.

The Sun Devil bigs dominated underneath to compliment the strong wing play. ASU scored 40 points in the paint to Arizona’s 22. Good passing and cutting underneath gave ASU a huge boost in the second half as the Devils would rack up easy shots and covert. Arizona State also out-assisted their opponents 22-8.

ASU improves to 9-6 in Pac-12 play while Arizona drops to 2-13. Arizona State will head to Tucson to face Arizona once again on the road Sunday. There are just three more games before the Pac-12 Tournament begins on March 1 in Seattle.

Next: ASU Basketball: Sun Devils begin Territorial Cup weekend versus Arizona

Good news for the Devils is that it seems Kiara Russell will be available to play on Sunday, according to Turner Thorne. She left early in ASU’s loss at UCLA last Sunday.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.