While she doesn’t tower over her opponents like teammates Becca Tobin or Joy Burke, redshirt junior forward Kali Bennett’s presence inside has been key for the Sun Devils all season.
And against California on Sunday, it was that presence and Tobin’s scoring that sparked the comeback that led to the last-second victory.
The Sun Devils were down by 10 with nine minutes left. Bennett and Tobin were paired up and proceeded to go on a tear on the inside, combining for eight points and pulling down a few key rebounds to help set up the game-winning shot from sophomore guard Deja Mann.
The chemistry with Tobin has been there since the start of the season, Turner Thorne said, and is part of what makes the 6-foot-5-inch Bennett so valuable to the team.
“They started this year playing together,” Turner Thorne said. “I’m just really proud of Kali because she’s really become a great decision maker for us. And on the flip side, she’s finishing better than she ever has.”
Since the start of the season, Bennett’s role has become more and more pronounced, and she is currently averaging four points and 4.9 rebounds per game. She’s only started five games this season, but consistently sees more than 14 minutes a game, and is the go-to option when play in the paint gets physical.
“Coming off last year, I didn’t have that much confidence,” Bennett said. “If they keep putting me in that role, I’m going to keep trying to step up for them. It feels good to know that they believe in me.”
There are two big reasons why she has been such a factor this year, and the first comes from Bennett herself.
“I used to relate scoring and wanting the ball to being selfish,” she said.
But now she’s more comfortable with the ball, and is better at deciding when to shoot and when to pass.
“That’s one thing I didn’t have before was balance,” Bennett said.
The other big reason is how much she’s matured as a player, Turner Thorne said.
She’s always played with a lot of emotion, but when she first came to ASU, that emotion would sometimes get her into foul trouble. Now it’s streamlined and really helps her game.
“I think her mental game has grown,” Turner Thorne said. “Last year she just got too emotional, and it impacted her ability to play, which was really hard, because you knew how good she was. But she’s worked really hard in the offseason on her mental play, and she’s continued to work on it this year.”
It’s been a long road for Bennett up to this point. She started her collegiate career at Washington in 2007, where she had a pretty solid freshman year, recording two double doubles and even scoring 17 points against the Sun Devils.
But Washington just wasn’t the place for her, and in May 2008 she decided to transfer to ASU.
“I had that redshirt year to adjust, and that helped a little bit,” Bennett said. “But it was still night and day compared to everything. High school was one experience, and then UW was another experience, and then I came here and it was completely different.”
Having to restart at a second new university was pretty tough, but Bennett said she knew pretty much right away that win or lose, this is where she wanted to be.
“Coming from the atmosphere I came from, I knew this is where I needed to be,” she said. “The coaching staff here and the support system here, you can’t ask for much more.”
After redshirting during the 2008-2009 season, she played in 31 games last year.
Unfortunately, her first season with the Sun Devils was also one of the most disappointing seasons ASU had in a long time.
The injury-plagued Sun Devils were forced to play with a thin, inexperienced roster, which really affected the team’s chemistry, Bennett said.
“It was a challenging year, I think for every single person on the team and then for the team as a whole,” Bennett said. “There was a lot of adversity, and with the group of people we had, we weren’t prepared for how to respond.”
ASU finished the season with a winning record through sheer force of will, and came into this season as a team that was ready to deal with whatever was thrown at them.
“That’s what’s different from this year and the year before that,” she said. “The team knows how to respond to adversity.”
Looking ahead to the end of the season and her senior year, Bennett isn’t worried about numbers.
“Every player wants to play to their potential, and I feel like I’m just starting to get there,” Bennett said.
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
