It’s a weekend that was tough for Danielle Orsillo to shake from her mind.
The ASU women’s basketball team’s last games against UCLA and USC more than two months ago literally caused the senior guard to have nightmares.
First, the Sun Devils blew a nine-point lead in the final five minutes against the Women of Troy to drop their first Pac-10 contest of the season.
That game clearly caused a big blow to ASU’s collective psyche.
“I just couldn’t bounce back,” Orsillo said. “I was just thinking about [the loss] and wasn’t really prepared for the next game against UCLA, and I think that could be said for most of us. You think about it when you go home, when you fall asleep you dream about it [and] you wake up thinking about it. It’s the worst feeling.”
The lack of readiness showed against the Bruins, as the Sun Devils were humbled on their own home floor by a score of 74-56.
But fast forward to March, and ASU has a chance to get pay those same schools back when it visits Los Angeles to take on UCLA on Thursday and USC on Saturday.
“They didn’t see the Sun Devils — they didn’t see us at all,” Orsillo said. “I hope that we come out, and they just get that taste of what we’re made of. We’ve got a bad taste in our mouth, for sure. You can only get that taste out by taking care of business.”
ASU’s first test against the Bruins will be a big chance to impress the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, as the Sun Devils (17-10, 9-7 Pac-10) are squarely on the bubble for an at-large bid and could greatly benefit from a win on the road against a marquee opponent.
“It’s interesting to be in this situation,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “Usually we’re on top, and everybody’s trying to get us and they’re trying to earn their bid. Now the shoe’s on the other foot. We can definitely, definitely help our resume a ton.”
But rather than getting caught up in the math, Bracketology and “what ifs,” Turner Thorne said the team’s main goal is the old cliché: one game at a time.
“The older players, they have a sense of maybe if we do this, we’ll get into the NCAA Tournament [and] if we don’t do this, we might not,” she said. “But we’re really not trying to go there, and I think we’re better when we don’t go there as a team. When they start thinking about results, then they’re not in moment playing their best basketball.”
UCLA comes into the contest having won 10 of its last 11 games, with its only defeat coming at the hands of Stanford. Because of the recent surge, the Bruins (20-7, 13-3 Pac-10) crept into the ESPN/USA Today Top-25 poll this week at No. 25 for the first time all season and have locked up the No. 2 seed for next week’s Pac-10 Tournament.
The Bruins’ main strength comes on the defensive end, as it ranks second in the conference in scoring defense (56.7 points per game), field-goal percentage defense (.366) and rebounding margin (+7.3).
“They really don’t allow you any offensive flow,” Turner Thorne said. “I do think that they’re definitely up there with Stanford in being one of the top defensive teams in the conference in terms of really keeping you off-balance. [They do] a lot of trapping, a lot of pressing [and are] trying to strip you. They’re a real ball-hawking defense.”
UCLA has gotten a huge boost on the inside from sophomore forward Jasmine Dixon, a mid-year transfer from Rutgers. Her 15.4 points and 7.9 rebounds per game would both rank in the top 10 in the conference if she had played in 75 percent of her team’s games so far this season.
“She’s a really talented player,” Turner Thorne said of Dixon. “She’s made a big difference for their team. She’s just a matchup nightmare. She’s like a [Charles] Barkley out there — just a big strong [player] but [with] better guard skills as a power forward.”
Freshman forward Markel Walker has also made an instant impact in Westwood, as she ranks seventh in the Pac-10 in rebounding (7.6 per game) and fifth in steals (2.11 per game) in addition to scoring 11 points per game.
The ASU post rotation of senior Kayli Murphy, junior Becca Tobin, sophomore Kali Bennett, redshirt freshman Janae Fulcher and freshman Joy Burke will have to limit the easy opportunities for those UCLA inside players, as the Bruins scored 50 points in the paint the last time the two teams faced each other.
“We definitely need to defend the backdoor cut, because that’s what they killed us on last time,” Tobin said. “Their posts are like guards, so we need to step down and keep them in front of us.”
The Sun Devils will then make the trip across the city to face USC in their regular-season finale. The Women of Troy have regrouped as of late, winning three straight after dropping their previous five contests.
USC sophomore guard Ashley Corral leads the Pac-10 in assists (5.04 per game) and ranks eighth in the conference in scoring with 15.1 points per game.
Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu
