ASU Basketball: Sun Devils finish regular season vs. Oregon schools

After a tough weekend in the Bay Area, ASU basketball returns home for Senior Weekend as they host No. 9 Oregon State and No. 6 Oregon.

March is here and the month starts with a bang for No. 21 Arizona State as the Sun Devils host two top-10 teams in the final weekend of the Pac-12 regular season.

The Sun Devils are coming off a poor weekend in the Bay Area falling to California 69-60 before suffering their worst loss of the season, 71-50, to the hands of seventh-ranked Stanford.

It was a frustrating weekend for the Sun Devils as they led California by as many as 12 points in that game before shooting just 27 percent in the second half in the loss.

In Palo Alto, it was a completely different story. The game was tied at 14 after the first quarter, but Stanford dominated the rest of the way.

The Cardinal shot 62 percent from the field on their Senior Day as the star trio of Kiana Williams, DiJonai Carrington and Alanna Smith combined for 42 points.

ASU shot just 30 percent from the field with forward Courtney Ekmark finishing with a team-high 10 points.

Forward Kiana Ibis struggled all weekend for the Sun Devils finishing with 10 points on 4-of-21 shooting. Head coach Charli Turner Thorne revealed that she didn’t practice all week and it showed in both games.

After not having any seniors on the roster last season, this weekend will be the final home games of the regular season for seniors Ibis, Ekmark, center Charnea Johnson-Chapman and forward Sophia Elenga.

On Friday, the Sun Devils will host the red-hot Oregon State Beavers. Oregon State is ranked ninth in the country after three straight wins against then-No. 2 Oregon, USC and UCLA.

The Beavers have already secured a top-four seed in the Pac-12 Tournament but they are still alive for the Pac-12 regular season title as they sit just a game back of the Ducks.

Oregon State is a different looking team then the one ASU defeated in double overtime back in January.

Center Joanna Grymek has been inserted into the starting lineup becoming a key force inside, something the Beavers haven’t had this season.

Grymek was a disruptive force on the defensive end and an effective post inside on the offensive end, giving the Beavers a post presence against some of the conference’s centers.

Oregon State seeks revenge against Arizona State as the Sun Devils were the only team to win at Gill Coliseum this season.

Forward Kianna Ibis and guard Reili Richardson led the Sun Devils in the upset win combining for 44 points in the double-overtime win.

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For the Sun Devils, it will be about limiting the Beavers’ perimeter game. They are the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12 led by guards Destiny Slocum and Mikayla Pivec.

The key to beat Oregon State will be limiting Pivec and guard Aleah Goodman. Goodman dropped 22 points in the upset win over the Ducks and when she puts up numbers like that, OSU is near impossible to beat.

In the game against Arizona State, Goodman finished with nine points. Rebounding will also be key for the Sun Devils as Pivec had 19 points and nine rebounds in the first meeting.

With Grymek’s expanded role, it’s essential the Sun Devils win the battle on the glass.

Lastly, on Senior Day, the Sun Devils will host the sixth-ranked Oregon Ducks.

Oregon bounced back last Sunday from consecutive losses to Oregon State and UCLA with a blowout win over USC.

The Ducks enter the weekend just a game ahead of Stanford and Oregon State in the Pac-12 title race.

Center Ruthy Hebard, who missed most of the Oregon State game and the entire UCLA game, came back Sunday playing 16 minutes and scoring 13 points.

Oregon defeated Arizona State 77-71 in the first meeting as the Sun Devils stormed back from a double-digit deficit in the first half to make it a one-possession game in the fourth quarter.

Guard Sabrina Ionescu was unstoppable for the Ducks scoring 31 points on 10-of-20 shooting as the Ducks only had nine assists on 28 made field goals.

For Arizona State, it’s all about defending the pick-and-roll. In the first game, ASU defenders kept going underneath the screens and it created open 3-pointers for Oregon. The Ducks shot 6-of-15 from 3-point range in the first meeting.

Also, Ionescu is great at penetrating the paint, sucking in defenders and dumping it off to Hebard for an easy bucket inside. That’s an Oregon speciality and needs to be defended by the Sun Devils.

There’s a lot on the line in the Pac-12 with the regular season champ still undecided and ASU fighting with UCLA for a top-four seed.

The Sun Devils need to finish a game better than the Bruins this weekend to earn a first round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament next week.

UCLA is hosting Utah and Colorado this weekend.

Arizona State could also fall to as low as the six seed with Utah just a half-game back of the Sun Devils for the five-seed.

It’s an important weekend for the Sun Devils for their Pac-12 seed and ultimately their NCAA Tournament seeding. They are a projected eight-seed according to ESPN’s Bracketology entering the weekend

A split or a sweep would do wonders for the Sun Devils before heading to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament next week.

It will also be an emotional weekend for the Sun Devil seniors as they could be playing their final games at Wells Fargo Arena.

Next. ASU Basketball: Sun Devils struggle against Stanford. dark

Everything to play for this weekend.