ASU women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne knew her team had a chance to “earn some rematches” against familiar nonconference opponents if it took care of business in the first two rounds of the preseason WNIT.

And after cruising by Cleveland State and Tulane last weekend, the No. 18 Sun Devils (2-0) will get their first shot at revenge Friday night when they face No. 2 Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.

ASU will try to atone for a 69-57 loss to the Sooners (2-0) in last November’s Caribbean Challenge in Cancun, Mexico.

“[During the] second week of the season, to play a top-five team on their home floor, it doesn’t get more fun than that,” Turner Thorne said. “The players in our program, they love that. They embrace it.”

The Sun Devils got off to a rough start in last season’s game and trailed 40-18 late in the first half. The ASU defense held OU without a field goal for a four-minute stretch in the second half to close the gap slightly, but the early hole the Sun Devils dug themselves in was just too big to crawl out of.

“Last time we played them, we had big-time regrets,” Turner Thorne said. “They came out and just punched us in the chin, and it took us about 17 minutes to wake up.”

This season, Turner Thorne said she doesn’t want the Sun Devils to leave the arena with any second thoughts in their head.

“What I’m trying to challenge our team to do is just absolutely empty out [and] give everything they’ve got,” she said. “If everything we’ve got is not good enough, then kudos to [OU].”

The Sooners beat UC Riverside 88-57 and Middle Tennessee State 85-65 to advance to the third round of the preseason WNIT.

The core of OU’s team is on the inside, where senior twins Courtney and Ashley Paris make up one of the most dominant post duos in the country.

“Basically for both of them, their best offense is getting [offensive] rebounds,” ASU senior forward Lauren Lacey said. “Obviously their size is a factor, because they’re bigger than your average Pac-10 [Conference] post player.”

Courtney Paris is a three-time consensus All-American and was The Associated Press National Player of the Year for the 2006-2007 season.

“She’s got great hands and an incredibly soft touch,” Turner Thorne said. “[If] you’re on the wrong side of a player that big and that talented, it’s over.”

Through two games this season, Courtney Paris is averaging 14.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game.

Turner Thorne said her associate head coach Joseph Anders, who stands at 6-foot-5, mimicked as Courtney Paris during this week’s practices to help prepare the team.

Then there’s the “other” sister, Ashley, who also does pretty well for herself.

Ashley Paris currently leads the team in scoring (17 points per game) and is also averaging 9.5 rebounds per game.

ASU’s inside players have the task of slowing down the Paris duo. But the Sun Devils will be without junior forward Kayli Murphy (hand) for the third straight game.

Senior center Sybil Dosty has taken her game up a notch so far this season, leading the team in scoring (13 points per game) and blocks (five) while ranking second in rebounds (7.5 per game).

Turner Thorne also stressed the entire Sun Devil team needs to do a better job of rebounding in order to hang with a squad with an inside presence like OU.

ASU has dominated its opponents 80-49 on the boards so far this season, but that was mostly due to the Sun Devils’ huge height advantage in their first two games. That will not be the case Friday, as each team has six active players that stand at least six feet tall or more.

“[OU’s] quite large,” Turner Thorne said. “That’s going to be the big test, because we’re not going to have a height advantage. We want to rebound [and] we have the mentality, [but] we just have to be a little bit more fundamental at times.”

On the perimeter, OU sophomore Danielle Robinson runs the show on both ends of the floor. The 2008 Big 12 Freshman of the Year led the Sooners in steals (69) and assists (130) last season and is first on the team in both those categories again this season.

“Cat-like doesn’t quite [describe her]; she’s so quick,” Turner Thorne said. “She’s tremendously talented defensively.”

Robinson will likely match up with ASU senior guard Briann January, who is already picking up where she left off last season as the do-it-all player for the Sun Devils.

January is averaging 11 points 7.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and two steals per game so far this season.

The winner of Friday’s game will earn the right to face No. 4 North Carolina in Sunday’s WNIT championship game.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.