When the shot went up from behind the arc with two seconds left, sophomore guard Deja Mann didn’t think it was going in.
“I was just trying to get it up,” Mann said. “It felt so soft, and I thought it wasn’t even going to touch the rim. And then it went in.”
The ball hit the net as time expired and the ASU women’s basketball team pulled off an incredible comeback with a 45-44 victory over Cal in Tempe on Saturday.
The Golden Bears (14-8, 6-5 Pac-10) jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage and didn’t trail until the final buzzer, when Mann’s shot went in.
It was also her first career game-winning shot, although ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said Mann consistently hits buzzer-beaters during practice scrimmages.
“This was a great, good-old-fashioned Sun Devil win,” Turner Thorne said. “Obviously a huge win for us, a lot of adversity, not being at full strength, not having Dymond Simon out there. I think it makes it that much more meaningful, for them to pull together and step up.”
Simon missed her second straight game. Although she no longer has concussion symptoms, Simon was not medically cleared to play, Turner Thorne said.
The Sun Devils (14-7, 6-5) had their forwards come up big, as senior Becca Tobin recorded 14 points and five rebounds, and redshirt junior Kali Bennett added 11 points and six rebounds.
But there really was no single player who took over the game, Turner Thorne said.
“This was a win by committee,” she said. “I mean everybody that played contributed.”
Sophomore forward DeNesha Stallworth was Cal’s biggest scoring threat on the inside, finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Eliza Pierre had five assists to go with eight points.
In what has become a common theme this season, the Sun Devils showed a stifling defense in the first half, holding Cal to just 18 points. However, after shooting just 17.4 percent in the same period, they were down by five points at halftime.
“Our shots just weren’t falling,” Tobin said. “We were getting good looks. When that happens, we just have to get second shots, and we weren’t really getting that many second shots in the first half.”
At the start of the second half, ASU’s defense wobbled, and the Golden Bears were able to take a 36-26 lead with nine minutes left.
That’s when the shots started to fall for the Sun Devils. Tobin hit several key turnaround jumpers to help ASU pull within six with 3:20 left.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mann and junior forward Kimberly Brandon tied game at 42, but Cal would hit two free throws to take back the lead.
A foul on Stallworth gave ASU an inbounds pass with nine seconds left.
But the play the team drew up didn’t work out, and Mann reached up to take the shot, prompting Pierre to lunge for the block. Mann adjusted mid-shot to avoid Pierre’s hand, but the awkward shot went in anyway.
Wells Fargo Arena erupted when the final buzzer went off, and Mann disappeared under a mob of her teammates.
During the post-game press conference, Mann was still shocked.
“I saw the light and the time run out on the backboard, and I was like, ‘That was the buzzer beater,’” Mann said. “I still can’t believe it. It’s crazy.”
The win puts ASU in fourth place in the Pac-10, behind USC and one spot above the Golden Bears. The Sun Devils also snapped Cal’s three-game winning streak.
And although ASU went into the weekend hoping to come away with two wins, Saturday’s victory will go a long way, Bennett said.
“I think this is a great game to come back off the Stanford loss,” Bennett said. “To show that we can hang with anybody and beat anybody.”
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
