The ASU women’s basketball team did exactly what it wanted to do in its only exhibition game of the 2009-2010 season against Vanguard.

Dominate the boards.

The Sun Devils outrebounded the Golden Lions 65-28 in their 97-64 win in their last tuneup before tipping off the regular season on Nov. 15 against South Dakota State.

“That was unbelievable,” senior guard Danielle Orsillo said. “We did a great job crashing the rebounds, [and] our posts did a good job being physical.”

Thirteen of those rebounds came from sophomore center Kali Bennett, who also added 18 points in 15 minutes in her first game action as a Sun Devil after transferring from Washington in 2008.

“She was a beast,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “The thing about those rebounds is she got around some of those [Vanguard] kids. She moved her big, strong body around a quicker, smaller player to get those rebounds. I thought that’s what was so impressive.”

After falling behind 5-0 to start the game, ASU responded with a 20-4
run to take an 11-point lead, and the Sun Devils never trailed again.

The Sun Devils led by as many as 29 points in the first half, and a free throw by Bennett with 13 seconds remaining gave ASU its largest lead of the game of 97-61.

Every ASU player saw at least seven minutes of action as Turner Thorne continues to experiment with different rotations. Six players got their first ASU experience in the game, including three true freshmen.

Orsillo, junior guard Tenaya Watson, sophomore guard Alex Earl, redshirt freshman forward Janae Fulcher and junior forward Becca Tobin made up the Sun Devils’ starting lineup, but Earl and Fulcher were replaced by senior forward Kayli Murphy and sophomore wing Kimblery Brandon at the beginning of the second half.

“Right now, we really don’t know our lineup,” Turner Thorne said. “The starters weren’t really starters — they were playing the best the last few days of practice. I’ve been telling that team we really don’t have starters yet.”

Brandon finished with a game-high 19 points, seven rebounds and three steals and also had an athletic block that ignited the crowd in the waning seconds of the first half.

“That girl has more athleticism in her pinky than a lot of people get in a lifetime,” Orsillo. “She’s just a great player and [it] will be fun to watch in the years to come.”

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