ASU is looking to protect its house for the weekend.
The ASU women’s basketball team welcomes schools Eastern Washington, Illinois State and Arkansas State to Tempe for the ASU Classic.
Junior guard Deja Mann said that it is very important to the team to defend their home court.
“We talk about defending home court every week,” Mann said. “We haven’t lost a (home) tournament, not since I have been here. It will be huge to win our home tournament.”
Coach Joseph Anders said that in the past, ASU has defended home court well.
“If you look at our track record over the last eleven years, it’s been pretty good on our home floor,” Anders said. “Any time you get an opportunity to play at home, we want to represent well.”
The Sun Devils come in to the weekend having just played two very close games in Puerto Rico. ASU played very composed as the game wound down last weekend.
Anders said that the performance in the close games does give the Sun Devils a little bit of confidence, but most of their confidence comes from excellent work in practice.
Senior forward Kali Bennett said that the close games did bring the team together.
“It caused our team to be a little bit closer; we trust each other and I think we believe in each other a lot,” Bennett said. “I think those games solidified our beliefs.”
ASU will take on Eastern Washington Friday and will face either Arkansas State or Illinois State on Saturday.
All three teams will be a challenge for ASU defensively. The three ASU opponents have all averaged over 40 percent field goal percentage this season.
The three opponents coming to Wells Fargo also have strong scorers.
Arkansas State sophomore forward Jane Morrill had 19 points in her last game.
EWU senior guard/forward Ryan Brianne has been putting up 20.7 so far.
ISU senior guard Katie Broadway has an 18.2 average per game.
The ISU Redbirds are lethal so far this season behind the three-point line. As a team they average 45.5 percent beyond the arc.
Broadway does most of her scoring from behind the tape. She has shot 33 threes this season and has made 48.5 percent of the shots.
Mann said there are many tactics to defend a strong three-point shooting team.
“Usually good shooters are not as comfortable driving so make them drive and chase them off the three-point line,” Mann said.
Both players and coach have the same simple goal in mind going into the tournament this weekend. The team wants to sweep the competition and protect their home floor but also continue to improve as a team.
“We want to play good basketball; we want to make sure that through our practice efforts we are prepared to take the floor and play to our best possible level,” Anders said.
Unlike in the past, the games for the ASU Classic will take place early in the day. ASU’s first matchup on Friday tips off at 10:30 a.m. and action gets underway Saturday at noon.
ASU scheduled the early times earlier last summer to adjust to the possibility of ASU hosting the Pac-12 football championship at Sun Devil Stadium.
Reach the reporter at ehubbard@asu.edu
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