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Elisha Davis' shot, crowd lift ASU to the Sweet Sixteen


With 14:42 remaining in its second round game of the NCAA Tournament Monday, the ASU women's basketball team trailed by 16 points and was on the verge of likely elimination. Then, something changed in Wells Fargo Arena, making for an incredible ending.

The No. 3-seeded Sun Devils (29-5, 15-3 Pac-12) were able to make a comeback for the ages, outscoring No. 11-seed Arkansas-Little Rock 24-8 over the final 8:42 of the game to win 57-54.

Coach Charli Turner Thorne said the comeback ranks towards the top of ones she's seen in her illustrious career, saying her team never gave up no matter what was going wrong.

"We've actually been in this situation for those of you who have been with us through the season," Turner Thorne said. "That's what we talked about at halftime. Especially the last half of the season. We had a lot of bad halves offensively. We got in there, took a breath, just said, okay, just slow down."

Sophomore forward Sophie Brunner, after making just one shot in the first half, carried ASU offensively down the stretch, scoring 14 of her 17 points in the second half.

Video by Logan Newman | Sports Reporter

With Brunner's help, the Sun Devils were down by six points after a layup by the Trojans with 2:45 remaining. ASU could not do much for most of its next possession, resulting in an inbounds play with four seconds left on the shot clock. Turner Thorne said what is possibly the biggest play of ASU's season was a busted one.

"(Redshirt junior guard) Katie (Hempen) was supposed to get the ball to Sophie on an (isolation)," Turner Thorne said. "She gave the ball to the wrong person and it got deflected, so now I took a timeout to set something. We didn't set up the 40-foot bank in the timeout. I'm just going to confess that. That was all them. Now we're down to two seconds and Katie didn't feel like she could make the pass, she gives it to Lili, and —"

Boom.

Junior guard Elisha Davis banked in a 25-foot 3-pointer as the shot clock ran out to pull ASU within three points and bring the Wells Fargo Arena crowd to its feet. Davis had missed her first four 3-point attempts of the game, but said that she had confidence in herself to hit one when it mattered most.

"As you seen in the first time when we had four seconds left on the shot clock and Katie gave it to me, I wasn't ready because I wasn't expecting it but after that I was just like now or never, like what is this, you've missed 10, hopefully you make the 11th one so you never give up," she said. "And my teammates and my coaches believed in me and they said it's going to fall, it's going to fall. It's a really tricky shot for that to be the only one that really fell, but I was glad that it did."

UALR coach Joe Foley said that Davis' shot was the most important play of the game.

"Well, I thought that three they banked in, I thought that was the difference in the game," Foley said. "If she hadn't made that shot and we get the rebound, then it might have been a different outcome. That was huge right there."

With the home crowd at full throat, the Sun Devils outscored the Trojans down the stretch, all on shots by Brunner and sophomore forward Kelsey Moos, and earned a berth in the Sweet Sixteen. Davis said that the energy the crowd gave ASU was a major factor in the comeback and eventual win.

"Our crowd was beautiful," Davis said. "It just felt so good to have so much support and to see that not only our teammates and coaches believed in us but also all of our supporters and people that have been there since day one. You know, so it's just very good to see that even some of the students came out when they could have just gladly clapped us off from being at home or seeing if we won or not. So to see that big crowd it gave us that energy like we can't let this down and we can't let our administration down for doing so much for us to even have this game and host us. That crowd were a part of that win just as well."

Video by Logan Newman | Sports Reporter

ASU will face No. 2-seed Florida State in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT on ESPN2.

Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow @Tonis_The_Tiger on Twitter.

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