Although ASU women’s basketball suffered losses in both of their first two games against Oregon State, the team struck back Friday night in a 57-51 win over the 10th-ranked Beavers in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals.
With time ticking off the clock in the fourth quarter, Arizona State trailed, 50-44, and had not scored a basket in the period. An inside basket by Kianna Ibis, however, helped ASU stay in the game.
Following the Ibis bucket, Courtney Ekmark hit a three-pointer, and the Sun Devils did not look back. ASU took their first lead since the third quarter with 2:02 left in the game, and the Sun Devils would not give up the lead the remainder of the game.
“I’m just incredibly proud of our team,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “I’m very happy for them and really proud of them.”
While it was close in the first half, Arizona State controlled the majority of the first 20 minutes and ended the second quarter on an 8-0 run.
A recurring theme for ASU this year was the Sun Devils’ struggles in the third quarter as they were outscored 25-18 Friday. Although the Sun Devils somewhat found their rhythm near the end of the quarter, Oregon State guard Katie McWilliams hit a three as time expired to give Oregon State a 46-44 lead heading into the fourth.
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The Sun Devils appeared to be out of it in the fourth quarter, for they had not scored in the first six minutes of the period. However, Ibis’ layup helped swing things in the right direction.
With their backs against the wall, Arizona State mounted a seemingly unlikely comeback. The Sun Devils ended the game on a 13-1 run and won by a final score of 57-51.
Ibis cited the team’s run at the end of the game to an increased sense of urgency in the last couple of minutes.
“We were coming down to the last quarter, and we knew we had to take it,” Ibis said. “We just tried to stay as aggressive as we could and just find, play to each other’s strengths.”
In Oregon State’s two most recent games before the Pac-12 Tournament, the Beavers were able to hold onto their leads, but head coach Scott Rueck noted this one was much different.
“It felt very similar to the last two games, and then we made mistakes,” Rueck said. “Ekmark hit the corner three, and I think we gave up an O-board lay-up for a five-point run. They were back in it, they got momentum and we couldn’t get it back.”
In addition to her game-changing basket, Ibis had a stellar night throughout the game, posting a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Her 14 boards were only a fraction of a solid rebounding effort in which the Sun Devils out-rebounded the Beavers, 39-30.
On deck for the Sun Devils is a semifinal game against two-seed Stanford. The Cardinal took care of business in their 10-point quarterfinal win over USC, led by a strong performance by Kiana Williams in which she scored 18 points.
Arizona State and Stanford split the regular season with each of the team’s winning at their respective homes. In early January, Arizona State defeated the Cardinal by a score of 73-66, but when the team’s played again in Palo Alto, Stanford ran away from ASU in a 74-50 win.
“We won at our place they won at our place. I think we’re excited about that,” Turner Thorne said.
Arizona State and Stanford are two of the four teams remaining in the Pac-12 Tournament. The game between the Sun Devils and Cardinal will be the second semifinal of the night and will tip at 9:30 p.m. MT.
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“Obviously Stanford is a tremendous team that knows how to peak and knows how to play in March,” Turner Thorne said. “They’ve been playing their best basketball, just getting better and better as the season goes on.”
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.