ASU senior Promise Amukamara looks around the Colorado defender to make the pass during the last game of regular season play. The Sun Devils would go on to their 26th game of the season with today's win over Colorado on March 1, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. (J. Bauer-Leffler/The State Press)No. 8 ASU women's basketball hadn’t beat No. 19 Stanford at Maples Pavilion in 31 years. ASU did this season.
ASU hadn’t swept Stanford in the regular season in the same time frame. ASU did this year.
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer had never lost three games to the same opponent in one year. She did not do that in 2015.
ASU fell to Stanford 59-56 in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.
“(It’s) hard to beat a team of Stanford’s caliber (while) shooting 31 percent,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We still fought back, gave ourselves a chance to win and just kind of heartbreaking.”
An unlikely hero came up for the Cardinal in senior forward Taylor Greenfield.
In the first half, she scored nine points, including a couple running, left-handed layups and a 3-pointer. Greenfield was a huge part of the lead Stanford built early.
As it was growing in the first half, redshirt junior Katie Hempen hit a 3 to cut ASU’s deficit to three. Greenfield immediately responded at the other end with a 3 of her own.
She wasn’t the only piece of Stanford’s game. Senior guard Amber Orrange was on fire, going 7-of-9 from the field and making 15 points that half. She was a bull, driving in the lane, pulling out for three, and finding open players when too many ASU defenders would surround her.
Greenfield said that Stanford came in with a game plan to attack the paint.
“We have to go to the basket,” she said. “We’ve got to draw contact and that really helped our momentum.”
Stanford had done its homework. It took advantage of ASU’s “team D” that Charli Turner Thorne instills in the Sun Devils’ game. When multiple help defenders would dash into the paint, Stanford was prepared to find the open player. The Cardinal leapt to a 13-point lead with 11 minutes in the second.
ASU came alive through an aggressive sophomore forward Sophie Brunner. She was vicious at the rim, going up hard and driving past defenders. She was an integral part of the offense through her rebounding as well. She had four first-half offensive rebounds and finished with six total. She had 10 rebounds overall and scored 14 points.
“We couldn’t keep waiting and waiting to get the lead back,” Brunner said. “We just started chipping away slowly but surely and we gave ourselves a chance at the end.”
Through free throws, post play and jumpers, ASU cut Stanford’s lead to single digits.
On an 11-2 run, Brunner had the ball near the free throw line. She kicked it out to a relatively open Hempen, who found a wide-open Davis in the corner. Stanford’s lead was cut to 52-51.
The streak was in large part because o Stanford’s early foul trouble. With more than 10 minutes remaining in the game, ASU was in the double bonus.
ASU took advantage. With 2:19 left, Hempen made a pair to put ASU up by a point.
Greenfield reminded the Sun Devils who she was. She hadn’t scored in more than eight minutes. She got the ball on the right side and drove left, went behind her back, then crossed over Hempen. She made a tough left-handed layup to give Stanford the lead.
Brunner’s ensuing layup was blocked and ASU had to foul.
The problem for ASU? The Sun Devils only had one foul in the half, with seven needed to put the Cardinal on the line.
The problem for Stanford? ASU is notorious at hard-nosed inbounds defense.
Seven in-game seconds later, on the fifth inbounds attempt, Moos got a hand on the ball. It bounced off Samuelson’s fingers and ASU took possession.
Davis drove, spun, and got blocked by freshman forward Kaylee Johnson.
Stanford’s success in the past has come off dominant center play. In the final minute, they saw a glimpse of that in Johnson when she jumped off her man to block Davis, then made the first one-and-one free throw.
She missed the second.
Greenfield, the lone Cardinal on the hash marks, grabbed the rebound over two Sun Devils. She put Stanford up by three.
“We know games are won and lost by rebounds and rebounds on the free throws,” Turner Thorne said. “Tough pill to swallow for us.”
With 10 seconds left, Davis had the ball. She worked to find Hempen, but the sharpshooter couldn’t get open. Davis heaved a prayer at the buzzer. It fell short.
Stanford won 59-56 and advanced to the Pac-12 finals for the 12th time in the past 13 years.
“We really had our eyes set on winning the Pac-12 championship this year,” Turner Thorne said. “There are a lot of good things we’ll take from this game heading into the NCAAs that I know we’re going to be that much better for it.”
Reach the reporter atlogan.newman@asu.eduor follow@Logan_Newsmanon Twitter.
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