LOS ANGELES — In both of the ASU women’s basketball team’s regular-season matchups against California this season, the Sun Devils staged dramatic comebacks in the final five minutes to knock off the Golden Bears.
ASU couldn’t muster up the same late magic the third time around.
The Sun Devils fell to the Golden Bears 60-50 in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament on Friday at the Galen Center in Los Angeles to all but squash ASU’s hopes of making its sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
“Obviously, we didn’t step up and get it done today,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “[It’s] just disappointing … [the] opportunity was there, and we didn’t capitalize. We didn’t stay with things, we didn’t make plays and it’s kind of a tough pill to swallow.”
ASU was burned by the same miscues that have plagued it all season long — lulls on offense, turnovers and defensive lapses. The Sun Devils made just 17 of their 57 shot attempts (29.8 percent), had no players score in double figures and turned the ball over 18 times.
“We hoped things would go better [in the Pac-10 Tournament], but when you have had the same problems all year, it’s kind of a 1-in-10 shot that it’s going to actually change,” ASU senior forward Kayli Murphy said. “We had the right mindset and we went into [the game] the right way, but things just didn’t go how we wanted them to.”
Turner Thorne said ASU will accept a bid to the WNIT — its first trip to that tournament since 2004. The Sun Devils will likely earn a high enough seed to host its first tournament game this coming week.
“We’re not going to end [the season] like this — no way,” Turner Thorne said of the Sun Devils’ performance against Cal. “We’re going to come back, and they’ve got to figure something out this year. Some coaches say ‘Oh, we’re above [the WNIT], we’re not going to go.’ I’m not above anything. If that’s what you earned, we’ll go. We’ll play.”
While the stretch run was where the Sun Devils thrived against the Golden Bears in their previous two meetings, that is where they fell flat Friday.
After a 3-pointer by senior guard Danielle Orsillo gave ASU a 39-36 lead with 12:06 to play, the Sun Devils did not score for nearly seven minutes, allowing Cal to grab a 45-39 advantage.
“It’s hard because they just take turns really acting like they’ve learned nothing,” Turner Thorne said. “Some people will grow, and then some people totally revert. And then once a few people revert, it’s over. We’re not talented enough and we’re not experienced enough to overcome it, so it’s pretty brutal.”
Overall, the Golden Bears outscored the Sun Devils 24-11 in the game’s final 12 minutes and had the answer anytime ASU tried to make a final push.
“We just struggled throughout the game [with] just not being as poised as I want us to be,” Turner Thorne said. “That’s all that we talked about was just being positive and sticking together, and I think in the first [two games against Cal] we had that more. In this game, I don’t know if people felt the pressure or what.
“We made really bad decisions with the ball, and then we didn’t get back [on defense] and just kind of lock people down and control the boards.”
When a jumper by Orsillo closed the gap to 45-41 with 5:13 to play, Cal senior guard Natasha Vital drilled a 3-pointer to stretch the Golden Bears’ lead back up to seven points.
Then after a layup by ASU sophomore center Kali Bennett cut Cal’s advantage to 48-43 at the 3:56 mark, Cal’s unquestioned leader, senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson, took over, scoring five straight points to virtually put the game away.
“When Lexi can find the zone and the shots are falling, I just step away and let her do what she does,” Cal coach Joanne Boyle said. “I’ve been coaching her for five years, so I kind of know when it’s coming.”
The Sun Devils built a seven-point lead late in the first half when a layup by Murphy with 1:32 left before the break capped a 13-0 spurt to make the score 24-17. But ASU could have led by much more if it had taken greater advantage of Cal’s 15 turnovers in the period and had not missed multiple layups.
Neither team led by more than four points in the second half before Cal made its final run to end the game.
Cal out-rebounded ASU 41-29, which was an aspect of the game Turner Thorne said would be critical heading into the contest. ASU won the battle on the boards 42-29 and 42-31 in the team’s first two meetings.
“We really needed to do a better job rebounding, and part of that was we just had to rotate too much [on defense],” Turner Thorne said. “People didn’t do a good job of keeping their player in front of them. Then you’re out of position or you have a guard trying to box out one of their [post players].”
Gray-Lawson led all scorers with 15 points and also filled out the rest of the box score with five rebounds, five assists and four steals
Cal freshman forward DeNesha Stallworth scored eight of her 14 points in the game’s final 10 minutes and added eight rebounds, two blocks and three steals.
“They really tried to go into the posts,” Murphy said. “We were ready for it, but we just can’t let them have direct post feeds. They didn’t even have to make a move — they just had an easy layup.”
ASU junior forward Becca Tobin scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Murphy chipped in with seven points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Cal junior guard Rachelle Federico was ejected late in the first half because of a flagrant foul after she elbowed Orsillo in the head. Orsillo stayed in the game but finished with just seven points.
Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu
