When Washington took a four-point lead with seven minutes left, it looked as though the ASU women’s basketball team was headed to its second loss in as many games.
But Dymond Simon was not about to let that happen.
The redshirt senior guard knocked down three straight baskets and then set up junior guard Alex Earl for an open three-pointer to come roaring back, and the Sun Devils (12-5, 4-3 Pac-10) managed to hold on for a 52-49 win.
After the game, Simon said the credit should go to the whole team.
“My teammates definitely got me open, it wasn’t just me,” Simon said. “I guess I was just feeling the flow at the moment. It was definitely some big shots, but I believe that all of us can have those big plays, and it’s going to be pretty amazing to see what we can do from here on out.”
Junior guard/forward Kristi Kingma led the Huskies (7-10, 2-6) with 14 points and three assists, and senior guard Sarah Morton added 10 points and four rebounds.
Simon finished with 13 points and three assists, and sophomore guard Deja Mann ended with eight points and three rebounds.
Despite the second-half comeback, ASU only held a two-point lead with 23 seconds left, but strong defense by Mann forced a turnover on an inbounds pass. Simon then drew a foul and hit one of two free throws to give the Sun Devils a three-point lead.
On the next UW possession, Kingma tried for a three to send the game into overtime, but had it blocked by redshirt junior forward Kali Bennett, effectively icing the game.
“I saw a couple screens there on the sideline, so I came out to help my teammates and I got the block,” Bennett said.
For the second straight game, the Sun Devils were plagued by poor shooting, going 33.3 percent from the field, a big change for a team that shot 46 percent and racked up 79 points against a ranked DePaul team earlier in the season.
At the same time, ASU was able to bounce back after a tough loss on Thursday and were stubborn on defense, which were the goals for the game, ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
“We’re not a great offensive team and we have some days where we really, really struggle,” Turner Thorne said. “So if we want the best opportunity to win every game in this incredibly tough conference, we are going to have to bring it like we’ve brought it in the past on defense for 40 minutes. And I do think that we did that today.”
The game started slow, but thanks to their stout defense the Sun Devils were able to open up a 10-2 lead by the six-minute mark. The Huskies managed to tie the game at 21, but were never able to take a first half lead, and ASU led 27-21 at halftime.
After the break, however, UW was able to put a run together, and Kingma, who had no points in the first half, started knocking down shots.
In the end the Sun Devils’ defense kept them in it, and ASU scored 26 points off turnovers, which proved to be the turning point, Simon said.
“We went back in on Friday, did some great things in practice, and we were much more aggressive on defense, and I definitely think that was the difference for our team tonight.”
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
