On Thursday night the ASU women’s basketball team took a big step toward the NCAA tournament.
Redshirt senior guard Dymond Simon had 21 points, junior forward Kimberly Brandon added 15 of her own and the Sun Devils (17-8, 9-6 Pac-10) blew past USC in the last four minutes to post a 69-55 victory in Tempe.
“It was just a great team win,” Simon said. “When we went on that long stretch of scoring, I think that was great for us. We just need to continue to do that for the rest of the season.”
The game was marked by extremely physical play, especially in the second half, and definitely had a postseason feel to it, which was something ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said they could expect for the rest of the season.
“It’s just that time of year,” Turner Thorne said. “You’ve got to play through stuff, you got to play strong. I thought our team played tough.”
It was that toughness that eventually wore down the Women of Troy (16-10, 8-7) and allowed ASU to outscore USC by 11 points during the last 4:06.
For the third game in a row the Sun Devils led in most of the columns on the score sheet, but it was their performance on the boards that was the difference, Brandon said.
“I think that our rebounding has really picked up,” she said. “We need to continue to keep doing that.”
USC junior guard Briana Gilbreath finished with 17 points and six rebounds to lead the Women of Troy.
The game was very close throughout the first half. No team had a lead larger than four points until 3:33 was left in the period, when a 3-pointer from Simon gave ASU a seven-point advantage.
But a 7-0 run by the Women of Troy brought them right back into the game, and the Sun Devils would only lead 30-28 heading into the break, after another basket by Simon.
“At halftime we weren’t happy at all,” Turner Thorne said. “We thought, ‘Yeah, we could keep playing kinda solid, we can flip a coin to see who wins, or we can try to get some separation.’ And I thought by the middle of the second half we started to get some separation.”
The Sun Devils shot only 35.5 percent from the field in the first half, but made all six of their free throws.
The second half started off much the same way, but slowly ASU started to take control of the game, and did a better job finding the open shot.
The more efficient the Sun Devils got, the more physical USC became, and despite the referees doing their best to let play continue, ASU took 17 free throws in the second half, making 15 of them.
Even with the increased pressure, the Sun Devils had just 11 turnovers all game.
“We just played through it,” Simon said. “During the stretch, refs aren’t going to call a lot, so if you lose the ball, that could be the game. You have to treat every possession like it’s your child almost, you have to take care of it constantly.”
The Women of Troy did a good job keeping up with the hot-shooting Sun Devils until the 4:03 mark, when a 9-0 run gave ASU a 61-48 lead, effectively putting the game out of reach.
The Sun Devils would finish with a 39-32 edge on rebounds while shooting 40 percent.
The win puts the Sun Devils firmly in third place in the Pac-10 and in a great position to make the NCAAs with just three regular season games left.
“I just thought we showed really good determination and really good toughness, and you better this time of year if you want to be in the conversation come March,” Turner Thorne said.
The Sun Devils face off against No. 9 UCLA on Saturday night, their last game against a ranked team during the regular season and a chance to make a huge statement on Senior Night.
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
