TEMPE- Arizona State junior forward McKinna Brackens faced her former team, the UNLV Lady Rebels, for the first time on Saturday.
She finished the game with a double-double of 21 points and ten rebounds while playing 39 minutes of action. Additionally, she has been an important player in the first few games of the Molly Miller era.
Brackens' fellow teammate, senior guard Marley Washenitz, who drilled a 'Hail Mary' three-pointer, stated that the Sun Devils won the game for her.
"It was exciting," Brackens said postgame. "I mean, nobody wants to lose their old team, obviously, but it was exciting to see my old friends around that team. Obviously, I wanted to play good, but ultimately I just wanted to matter how we got that [win]."
Arizona State faced a big test in UNLV, who advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the past three of four seasons, throughout the game and successfully won the game in crunch time.
Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Molly Miller said on Wednesday that facing the UNLV Lady Rebels would be an ultimate big test for the team.
"That's a yearly tournament team," Miller said of the UNLV Lady Rebels. "I mean, that's a team for the past five years, they've made the NCAA tournament. That's where we want to be. So if you can stack yourself up against a team that's making the tournament consistently, then you can on the back end, see, this is a good team that we just beat, that we fought, that we had a battle with, but also we've got to learn from this.
"I'd rather learn from a win, no doubt, but we can't just take this and say, 'Oh, good job. We beat a really good team.' Got to get better, we've got to get in-game film. We've got to practice some of our weaknesses, and sometimes that's hard to do is winning, I think as a coaching staff, I mean, I've even last year said, 'Hey, let's practice like we just lost that game,' just so it means something, so sustained winning. There's an approach with that as well, and they've got to stay hungry."
Although the Sun Devils have a lot to take away after facing the Lady Rebels in an important test. After having a rough shooting in the first quarter, Arizona State picked it up on the offensive end and their scoring.
"Basketball is a game of runs," Brackens said. "So at the beginning, we weren't hitting anything, so we all were looking at each other, and we had no energy, it was kind of lost, but after that, we're like, 'okay, come on, guys, we're okay.' We settled in after that, and it helped move the game along. Then shots started falling, we got open looks, and then it was just like barbecue chicken from there."
Washenitz mentioned that after facing two big tests in the last two games against Santa Clara and UNLV, Arizona State will continue to build on its daily success for games to come.
"It's kind of a similar test, honestly, at Santa Clara, we mentioned that in the huddle, we've been in this position before," Washenitz said. "When you put yourself in these positions, obviously, you don't want to be in them, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, you become more comfortable in these settings, and you mature as a player. Not saying we want to be comfortable in these situations whatsoever. We definitely want to build a lead and sustain that lead.
"But like I mentioned, they're a good team, have good pieces, and they win their conference. You know how many times out of the years they've been there. So this might be the first time they've lost three games in a row in a while. So we knew they were coming into this game hungry because they had lost their previous two, and they're not familiar with losing, so just understanding that once we get a lead, let's sustain it and let's do it going good for us."