Devils in Detail
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ASU Basketball: Devils play rival Arizona to kick off Pac-12 Tournament

By Sam Ficarro

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil performs during the team's quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the Oregon Ducks T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oregon won 80-57. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: Arizona State Sun Devils mascot Sparky the Sun Devil performs during the team's quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament against the Oregon Ducks T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Oregon won 80-57. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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ASU women’s basketball opens up postseason play Thursday night against Arizona in the first round of the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Arizona State, after a disappointing end to the regular season, are ready to reboot for a new season as they face Arizona Thursday night.

The Sun Devils are coming off a pair of losses to Oregon and Oregon State in which ASU blew a halftime lead.

Against the Ducks last Friday, ASU led 25-24 at halftime but in the second half, Arizona State scored just 15 points as Oregon got hot shooting 56 percent in the second half.

The Sun Devils were very frustrated postgame as the Sun Devils lost by 13 despite holding Oregon to 27 points below their season average and out-rebounding the Ducks by eight.

Sunday it was the Marie Gulich show.

The Beavers senior center scored 30 points on 13-of-13 shooting in the second to help erase a 10-point deficit. Gulich finished with a career-high 36 points on 16-of-18 shooting.

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Arizona State led 32-22 and were much smoother on offense getting everyone involved.

Defensively, the Sun Devils just had no match for Gulich in the post with center Charnea Johnson-Chapman apologizing to head coach Charli Turner Thorne after the game for her post defense.

The Sun Devils turn the page to Seattle for the Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament where they’ll face Arizona in the first round.

These two teams will meet for the third time in two weeks as the Sun Devils swept the Territorial Cup series with convincing wins.

In Tempe on Feb. 16, the Sun Devils defeated the Wildcats 75-50 with ASU outscoring U of A 25-5 in the third quarter to pull away.

Guard Robbi Ryan scored a career-high 24 points with forward Courtney Ekmark chipping in 17 points. Four Sun Devils finished in double-figures.

Arizona was held in check as guard JaLea Bennett and forward Kat Wright scored 16 and 13 points respectively.

Sun Devils shot the ball lights outshooting Arizona 56 percent to 44 percent.

Two days later, it was the Sun Devils 3-point shooting that carried them. Arizona State shot 7-of-16 from three in the first half to give them an 11-point advantage.

In the second half, Turner Thorne instructed them to take fewer threes as she wanted the Devils to grind out the second half and fatigue the Wildcats.

ASU outscored Arizona 34-21 in the second half with the Wildcats shooting just 38 percent in the final 20 minutes to cruise to a 69-45 win.

This will be third meeting in the Pac-12 Tournament with the Sun Devils 2-0 all-time with the most recent meeting occurring in 2012 in which ASU won 68-53.

While Arizona State dominated both games this season, Arizona shouldn’t be overlooked with Bennett, Wright and forward Sam Thomas, who was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team averaging 10.2 points per game and leading all freshmen in rebounds (7.1 per game), steals (1.5 per game) and blocks (1.3 per game).

Next: ASU Basketball: Marie Gulich’s 36 points sinks Sun Devils

The winner of this game will face the third-seeded Oregon State Beavers, who ASU lost to this past Sunday. Tip off of Arizona-Arizona State is set for 9:30 p.m. MT and it can be seen on Pac-12 Network.