ASU Basketball: Sun Devils continue road trip at Utah, Colorado

After scoring 39 points in a 12-point loss at Arizona, ASU basketball looks to get back on track with a road trip to Utah and Colorado.

Arizona State continues their three-game road trip to open Pac-12 play Friday when they face the Utah Utes. They’ll finish the road trip Sunday against the Colorado Buffaloes.

The Sun Devils are coming a surprising 51-39 loss at Arizona. Despite holding the Wildcats to 20 points below their season average, Arizona State was unable to get going offensively as they shot just 23 percent from the field.

One of the nation’s leading scorers, Arizona guard Aari McDonald scored a game-high 24 points on 9-for-17 shooting.

McDonald used her quick speed to drive to the basket at will drawing many fouls in the paint and kickstarting Arizona’s transition offense.

No matter which guard was defending her, McDonald had success with ASU lacking help-side defense when McDonald beat her primary defender.

Forward Kianna Ibis, who picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter because of McDonald’s speed, finished with a team-high 11 points.

Despite leading the team in scoring, head coach Charli Turner Thorne admitted that Ibis’ early foul trouble disrupted ASU’s rotations.

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Guard Kiara Russell had arguably her best game of the season finishing with eight points and two assists keeping ASU in the game in the first half.

Arizona’s defense was outstanding at contesting every Sun Devil shot as ASU finished with just 13 field goals and 4-of-23 from behind the arc.

The loss was not the start to Pac-12 play ASU was hoping for and this weekend presents an opportunity to get back on the right foot.

Utah is the first game. The Utes are the last unbeaten team in the conference sporting a 12-0 (1-0 Pac-12) record.

Last Sunday, Utah went into Boulder and defeated Colorado 76-61 behind 18 points from freshman Andrea Torres, who was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.

In total, four players finished in double-figures for the Utes with forward Megan Huff finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Huff is the star player for Utah as she’s averaging 19.8 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per game.

Unlike last season, when Utah relied mainly on Huff and senior Emily Potter, the Utes are a much deeper squad thanks to freshmen Torres and Dre’Una Edwards.

Edwards, who’s also been named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week this season, is averaging 12.5 PPG and 8.2 rebounds per game this season.

Utah split the season-series with Arizona State with the road team winning each meeting. This Utes has NCAA Tournament aspirations this year and will present a considerable challenge for ASU.

On Sunday, the Sun Devils will face the Buffaloes who enter the weekend with a 10-2 (0-1 Pac-12) record.

Colorado is looking to improve their conference record from last season when they went 5-13 in Pac-12 play after going 10-3 in non-conference.

The team runs through senior guard Kennedy Leonard who leads the team with 13.8 points per game.

For the Buffaloes, it’s the supporting cast around Leonard that has limited their potential. Guard Mya Hollingshed is the only other Buffalo averaging double-digits (11.8 PPG).

Arizona State swept the season series against Colorado last season with an average margin of victory of 19.5 points.

This is a very important weekend for the Sun Devils as the schedule intensifies the next two weeks with four straight games versus ranked opposition.

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Friday’s game against Utah will tip off at 7 p.m. MT and Sunday’s game at Colorado will tip off at 2 p.m. MT.