TEMPE- Head coach Molly Miller knew the Arizona State Sun Devils would bounce back with a win at home.
And they just did that on Wednesday, winning a game in a blowout over the UCF Knights, 68-45, in their first home game of 2026.
"This is a special group, and I knew we were going to win this game two days ago, not because of wreckers, not because of anything, but because of the look in their eye and how they had focused, like I knew we were ready," Miller said Wednesday.
"I felt good coming into this game because of them, not any other outside factor, but because of how they approached the days after the BYU game. That's a testament to them, how they can come back and have some of that resolve and get to the next thing. And we always say zero-zero, we're not focused on the 15 wins, we're not focused on one loss. We're focused on UCF. And now we're going to turn the page, and we're going to focus on TCU [on Sunday]."
One of the key factors in the Sun Devils' victory over the Knights was their dominance on the board, winning the rebounding battle, 37-28 over the course of the game.
"It was a point of emphasis for sure at practice rebounding, because we didn't look at our rebounding again like that," said forward McKinna Brackens, who had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
"Today, I was making sure that I was crashing every time or blocking out, making sure my teammate got the rebound a bunch of times. [Last-Tear Poa] came in there and got it me and [Heloisa Carrera] blocking out, so just making sure that we cleared it out for somebody to get the rebound."
Additionally, Arizona State outscored UCF in points in the paint, 40-18, and limited them to 24 points throughout the second half.
Forward Heloisa Carrera led the Sun Devils in scoring, in which she scored 15 of her 20 points in the second half, and had five rebounds and two steals.
"We were outworked by rebounds [as BYU won the rebounding battle 54-25]," Carrera said on Arizona State's extra motivation. "So being able to come here, work really hard and show that we're the team that's going to work hard, play defense and [allow] turnovers, so being able to do that is really good for us, because that's our identity."
Arizona State will have one of its biggest challenges of Big 12 Conference play on Sunday, facing Olivia Miles and No. 13-ranked TCU Horned Frogs on the road.