ASU Basketball: Sun Devils grind out win over No. 24 Cal

Late free throws and a key takeaway leads the way as ASU basketball takes a big home win over the Golden Bears.

It wasn’t easy, but the Sun Devils pulled out a hard fought victory Sunday night.

No. 19 Arizona St. (11-4, Pac-12 3-2) defeated No. 24 Cal (10-5, 1-3 Pac-12) 62-61 in a game that came down to the final possession.

The Sun Devils were led by a dominant Kianna Ibis, who recorded 26 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field. Ibis also had a career-high four threes and was perfect from the line (4-for-4) as Cal struggled to find a way to stop the lead scorer for ASU.

“She’s a great shooter and she’s worked really hard,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “She has a great sense of urgency for us and she’s got that shooter mentality which is great.”

On the Cal side of the court, the Golden Bears shot 45.5 percent from deep and used an outstanding performance from Kristine Anigwe to keep stride with the Sun Devils.

Anigwe, the top rebounder in the country, finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds, but started 1-for-8 from the field in the first half. In the second half the 6-4 senior took over for the Golden Bears, reaching the free throw line 12 times and making 11 of her attempts.

It was that second half turnaround that nearly pushed Cal to a victory over the Sun Devils.

On the game, ASU shot 46.9 percent from the field compared to 39.2 percent from Cal. The key difference from the Golden Bears was the 16 made free throws on 20 attempts. While ASU finished with 15 free throw attempts in the game, in the first half, the Sun Devils had only gone to the line three times, a mark that had Cal leading by two after the half.

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It was an aggressive second half for the Sun Devils that got them to the line, where they converted 9-of-12 attempts.

Neither team led by more than six in the back-and-forth contest as both struggled to pull away. On the night, the lead changed hands 18 times.

It was the final few minutes that put ASU ahead and sealed the team’s third conference victory.

With only a minute left in the fourth quarter, the Sun Devils were down two and Ibis was sent to the free throw line.

“We always practice pressure free throws and I knew I needed to calm myself down,” Ibis said. “But we both ended up going to the line and knocking them down.”

After the made shots, the Sun Devils forced a Cal turnover with only 27 seconds left in the game. On the other end Reili Richardson was fouled, but hit only one of two from the line with 4.2 seconds remaining.

The Golden Bears called a timeout, with one chance left to go for the win down one.

After seeing the set ASU called a timeout and re-adjusted the defense.

Cal inbounded the ball to Anigwe, but the tight defense from both Richardson and Charnea Johnson-Champan forced Anigwe to put up a wild shot that was no good. An offensive rebound gave Cal another shot, but it too was no good as the buzzer sounded.

Although it came down to the final possession, it exactly the type of situation Turner Thorne had prepared her team for.

“I was happy with our aggressiveness on that last play, because that’s what it’s going to take,” Turner Thorne said. “We need that to win this conference and hopefully we can build on that.”

The Sun Devils are on the road next week to take on two top-ten ranked teams in No. 5 Oregon and No. 10 Oregon St. ASU first matches up with the Ducks Friday at 7 p.m. MT.

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