ASU Basketball: Sun Devils falter late against No. 6 Oregon

With loss, ASU basketball remains a fifth seed in the Pac-12 after splitting final home weekend against the Oregon schools.

Despite holding Oregon to only 66 points, Arizona State couldn’t close out a much-needed victory Sunday afternoon.

The No. 21 Sun Devils (19-9, 10-7 Pac-12) dropped their final home game of the season against the No. 6 Oregon Ducks (27-3, 16-2 Pac-12) after holding a four-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

Despite not playing her best, junior Sabrina Ionescu once again played a key role in Oregon’s second victory over the Sun Devils.

Ionescu, struggled from the field (7-for-22), but added four points in the final two minutes for the Ducks that eventually sealed the win for the team.

Although Ionescu was held to only eight points in the first half, it was her performance in the second that allowed the Ducks to sneak a win from the Sun Devils.

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On the ASU side, senior Kianna Ibis finished the contest with a game-high 23 points, but was one of two double-digit scorers for the Sun Devils.

Playing in her final home game, Ibis lifted ASU in the third, scoring 13 points in the quarter.

The contest as a whole went back and forth, with the team’s trading the lead 17 times, before the final buzzer.

“We kind of knew it was going to be back and forth,” Ibis said. “It always comes down to the little things, like rebounding. They just did those and we couldn’t step up.”

But by the end of the third quarter it seemed like ASU had finally figured out how to stop the Ducks.

The Sun Devils had their largest lead of the game at five and limited Oregon to 26.6 percent shooting in the third. ASU outscored the Ducks by eight in the quarter and needed only 12 minutes to close out the win.

But instead Oregon stormed back in the fourth, kicking off the quarter with 10-0 run to swung the momentum to the visiting side.

And there it stayed for the Ducks.

Oregon finished the fourth outscoring ASU 20-9 in the final period, giving the Ducks their 16th conference win of the season.

And although the offense struggled in the fourth, it also didn’t help that ASU couldn’t seem to get the benefit of the doubt from any of the officials.

One moment in particular was late in the fourth, when a charge call against Oregon’s Satou Sabally was reviewed by officials and overturned to a blocking foul against ASU’s Charnea Johnson-Chapman.

“It’s over, there’s nothing you can do, but that would be tragic if they missed that call after they reviewed it,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “You don’t overturn a call unless you are darn sure.”

One key place where Oregon took it to ASU was on the glass.

The Ducks outrebounded the Sun Devils 37-33, a factor that played into many Oregon’s second-chance points (14).

“I think it just came down to rebounding,” senior Robbi Ryan said. “The more rebounds you have, the more possessions you have. Each chance is so valuable.”

Next. ASU Basketball: Defense, Ibis key in season sweep of Beavers. dark

The Sun Devils now travel to Las Vegas, NV for the 2019 Women’s Basketball Pac-12 tournament. The tournament runs through Mar. 7-10.

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