Most expected the first-round NCAA Tournament game between the No. 6-seed ASU women's basketball team and 11th-seeded Temple to be a defensive struggle.
And for the first half, it was exactly that.
But a 13-0 run at the start of the second half was enough to propel the Sun Devils (22-10) to a 61-54 win and into the second round of the Oklahoma City Region where they will face No. 3-seed Duke on Tuesday in College Park, Md.
"[ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne] told us earlier in the week that the first win is one of the toughest wins in the NCAA Tournament because no one wants to go home this early," ASU junior forward Lauren Lacey said by phone following the game. "We're all feeling really good right now."
The Sun Devils and Owls (21-13) had 26 points a piece at the break, but ASU made six of its first seven shots after intermission to open up a comfortable double-digit lead.
"Basically we went in [the locker room at halftime] and said that was our warm-up," said Turner Thorne, according to the Associated Press. "Offensively we weren't playing very strong in the paint, and we came out and got more aggressive on defense."
Lacey started the scoring with two easy layups in the opening minute, and a steal and breakaway layup by sophomore forward Kayli Murphy gave the Sun Devils a 39-26 lead with 15:38 to play.
"Charli just came in at halftime and told us that we needed to kind of calm down and go up strong with our shots," Lacey said. "That's what we did in the second half to go on that run."
A layup by Temple senior guard Ashley Morris finally ended the Owls' five-minute scoring drought, and a jumper by sophomore guard Kristie Watkins-Day got Temple back within single-digits, 41-33, with 12:56 remaining.
But the Sun Devils would increase that lead back to 13 points when sophomore guard Dymond Simon dove headfirst to steal the basketball and passed it to Murphy while on the ground for another fast-break layup with nine minutes to play.
Temple continued to hang around and came within six when Morris hit the Owls' first 3-pointer of the game with one minute left to make the score 58-52.
But Temple's normally sound defense fell asleep at a critical time by allowing ASU junior guard Briann January to get behind every Owl on the ensuing inbounds pass. ASU senior guard Jill Noe connected with January on a pass that almost went the length of the court, and January made an uncontested layup to give the Sun Devils a 60-52 advantage to all but seal the victory.
Noe finished the game with 12 points and four rebounds, while Lacey scored 14 points and January chipped in 10.
The Owls' Morris led all scorers with 21 points, but she got little help from the rest of her team offensively.
Senior center Lady Comfort was the only other Owl in double figures with 11 points.
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
