The ASU women's basketball team was plagued by its inability to notch a signature win all season.
And now that black cloud will hover over the Sun Devils (22-11) for the entire offseason, as No. 6-seed ASU lost to third-seeded Duke, 67-59, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday night in College Park, Md.
"Obviously our expectations are very high, [and] we wanted to take the next step this year," ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said by phone. "In hindsight, everything had to fall into place, and it didn't. I look at it as, 'Wow, this team really accomplished a lot given the adversity.'"
The loss dropped ASU to 0-10 against ranked teams this season, while Duke (25-9) advances to its 11th straight Sweet 16 appearance and will face No. 2-seed Texas A&M in Oklahoma City on Sunday.
ASU never let the Blue Devils completely pull away, but it ultimately couldn't overcome a career-night by Duke junior center Chante Black. Black finished the game with 26 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks to command the paint for the Blue Devils.
"When [Black is] played one-on-one, she is very good and very athletic," ASU junior forward Lauren Lacey said by phone. "Defensively, she alters people's shots because she's such a great shot blocker. Kudos to her because she definitely brought her 'A' game and took it to us."
ASU looked both nervous and overmatched in the game's opening minutes as a pair of free throws by senior guard Wanisha Smith gave Duke an 8-0 lead and a layup by Black made the score 14-4.
"We had some nerves, I will say that," Turner Thorne said. "We were just jacked up, more nervous that I've really seen our team to be honest. That just shows you how much they care."
But the Sun Devils began to settle down midway through the first half, and a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Dymond Simon sparked a 9-2 run that brought ASU within two, 18-16, with 7:53 to go before the break.
The Blue Devils then rebuilt a seven-point lead, but back-to-back jumpers by ASU junior center Kirsten Thompson and Simon in the final 30 seconds of the first period left the Sun Devils down just three, 27-24, at halftime.
A 3-pointer by ASU junior guard Briann January and a free throw by Lacey cut Duke's lead to 29-28 in the first two minutes after intermission, but an old-fashioned 3-point-play by sophomore forward Joy Cheek on Duke's next possession ignited a 9-2 run to extend the Blue Devils' lead to eight points with 14:47 to play.
ASU climbed back into the game when it went on a 13-5 run to bring the Sun Devils within five. Junior center Sybil Dosty started the spurt with a 3-point-play and capped it with a layup to make the score 52-47. The Sun Devils hit 7-of-7 free throws during that span.
"We got a little more aggressive on offense," Turner Thorne said. "We got some shots to fall, got a few key stops and just [showed] resiliency."
ASU and Duke traded turnovers and baskets for the next four minutes until Lacey hit a jumper to slice the Blue Devils' lead to three with just more than two minutes to play.
The Sun Devils thought they got the defensive stop they were looking for on Duke's next possession but Dosty was called for a foul when she appeared to cleanly block a shot attempt by Smith.
Smith made one of the two ensuing free throws to make it a two-possession game.
"If we would have hit a few more shots and we rebounded better, we win," Turner Thorne said. "We could have played so much better. We didn't have to play great but just a little more solid, and we would have won. We know that, we have to live with that."
Reach the reporter at: gina.mizell@asu.edu.
