Beat at their own game.
Against Temple on Saturday, the ASU women’s basketball team was outplayed at every turn by an Owls team with a very similar style of play. The final result was a 63-45 Temple victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Salt Lake City.
The Sun Devils finish the season with a 20-11 record and returned to the Big Dance after a disappointing season last year, but it still hurts to be knocked out in the first round, redshirt senior Dymond Simon said.
“We had letdowns a lot in this game and things happen sometimes,” Simon said. “I just wish it didn’t happen today in probably one of the biggest games of our lives.”
Throughout the game, the Owls (24-8) used a stifling defense to help shut down ASU’s shooters, holding the Sun Devils to just 30.9 percent from the floor. ASU’s bench, normally a huge factor, was held to just four points. Temple’s bench, on the other hand, finished with 19 points.
The biggest problem on offense, however, was ASU’s inability to connect on open looks, ASU senior forward Becca Tobin said.
“It was just about trying to get the open person the ball,” Tobin said. “We got open, but we just couldn’t knock them down today.”
Tobin had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Sun Devils, and junior forward Kimberly Brandon finished with 11 points and six rebounds to lead ASU.
The Sun Devils’ usually solid defense had a tough time preventing Temple from driving into the lane. The Owls’ speed on the perimeter in particular gave ASU problems all game, and really allowed Temple to open up the inside.
“We knew what we had to do,” Simon said. “We have been going over their plays for a couple of weeks now. It just came down to effort and communicating between ourselves.”
The Owls were led in scoring by sophomore center Victoria Macaulay, who finished with 12 points, but the player of the game for Temple was junior guard Shey Peddy, who had 10 points, seven rebounds and six steals for the Owls.
“It was a good matchup,” Simon said. “She is a really talented guard.”
Junior forward Kristen McCarthy also had 10 points for Temple.
The Sun Devils actually got off to a hot start, hitting their first three shots and opening up a 7-2 lead just over two minutes into the game.
That was about the end of ASU’s success on offense, however, Temple made a few changes to prevent ASU from getting inside with any ease, and started to shift from zone to man-to-man defense every few plays to prevent the Sun Devils from getting into a rhythm. But again, it was missed opportunities that really killed ASU, coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
“I thought we got some good looks, but we kept missing bunnies and missing threes and good open looks,” Turner Thorne said. “Temple’s a good team, you can’t afford a great margin of error, and they kept converting off the turnovers and I think that got to us a little bit after a while.”
The Owls held a 31-20 advantage at halftime, and the Sun Devils just weren’t able to pull Temple back in the second half.
The lead ballooned to 24 points with 5:19 left before both teams began to back off and send their bench players into the game.
One bright spot for ASU in the second half was senior guard Tenaya Watson, who had eight points in the second half and tried to spark a comeback. The support from her teammates just wasn’t there.
“We didn’t have that normal fight like we normally do and that was disappointing, and it was collective,” Turner Thorne said. “It wasn’t just one or two players that didn’t have it.”
It was the first time the Sun Devil lost in the first round in their last seven tournament appearances.
Reach the reporter at egrasser@asu.edu
