On Friday night, it seemed as if the ASU women's basketball was out of the game from the get-go when Stanford won the tip-off.
After winning that tip Stanford raced down the court, putting the ball up for a virtually uncontested layup.
From there, the No. 25 Sun Devils continued to stumble as Stanford scored six unanswered points to start the game and had an 8-2 lead with five minutes left in the first quarter. Stanford also forced turnovers to strengthen its lead as the Sun Devils surrendered a season-high 14 on the night.
In the second half, Stanford continued to control the game, maintaining a double-digit lead thanks to 49.2 percent shooting from the floor, paving the way to a 74-50 victory.
Head coach Charli Turner Thorne was disappointed with the overall effort from her team. She said the Sun Devils did not play together, and that the game game exemplified the team's youth this year.
“This team does not understand when they beat a team, especially when it is a veteran team, how they are going to come back at us," Turner Thorne said. "We don’t understand that, I try to tell them and they don’t get it.”
The Sun Devils were led by sophomore guard Robbi Ryan, who scored 11 points. She was the only Sun Devil who reached double digits. Junior center Charnea Johnson-Chapman had a big impact on the glass for ASU with four points and seven rebounds.
Halfway through the first quarter, after falling to an 8-2 deficit, Turner Thorne called a timeout and the Sun Devils came roaring back, cutting down the Stanford lead to five points by the end of the first.
Turnovers were the difference in the first quarter as Stanford forced six in the first ten minutes of the game — ASU only averages 11 turnovers per game.
The second quarter started a lot like the first for the Sun Devils, taking them almost three minutes to score their first points, all while Stanford scored eight more points to grab a 25-12 lead.
After those first points from sophomore guard Reili Richardson, ASU heated up, scoring 14 points in the rest of the quarter. Stanford, however, didn’t slow down either, as they took a 41-26 lead into the half.
Stanford continued to maintain its 15-point cushion in the third quarter, even as the teams traded blows. Stanford kept it a 14-point game and stayed in control into the fourth quarter.
The Sun Devils struggled to find their stroke and were outscored 20-10 in the fourth quarter.
In the end, Stanford waltzed its way to a 74-50 victory over the Sun Devils in what was ASU’s largest loss of the season.
The Sun Devils will be back in action Sunday as they stay on the road to take on the California Golden Bears at 4 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at Joshua.Zaklis@asu.edu and follow @JoshZaklis on Twitter.
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