Senior guard Promise Amukamara drives to the basket in a game against Middle Tennessee on Friday. Nov. 14, 2014 at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. Amukamara and her 16 points helped the Sun Devils beat UA 88-41 on Jan. 8, 2015. (Photo by Ben Moffat)The No. 18 ASU women's basketball team (14-1, 3-0 Pac-12) thoroughly dominated the home UA team (7-7, 0-3 Pac-12) in an 88-41 victory.
UA never led in the game. The Sun Devils got off to a 7-0 lead and didn’t look back, and entered halftime holding a 44-14 lead off redshirt junior guard Katie Hempen’s 11 points and junior guard Elisha Davis’ six points, five rebounds and five assists.
The key, though, was the transition game. ASU forced 18 turnovers and had 14 fast break points.
“We had our transition game going again,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said in a postgame interview with NBC Sports Radio 1060 AM.
ASU’s ball movement also helped. The Sun Devils were making the extra pass and turning decent shots into wide-open opportunities, then would take advantage of the situation.
ASU started the second half where it left off. With the shot clock winding down on the opening possession of the half, Hempen nailed a 3-pointer from around the NBA 3-point line. It was a sign of things to come, as ASU scored 44 more in the half.
Davis’ passing was impressive. She has an uncanny ability to find open players, particularly in the post, and fit the pass in small windows. She does a good job putting the ball in a place for sophomore forward Sophie Brunner to spin around and make a post move toward the hoop, and found a wide open senior guard Promise Amukamara on a nifty bounce pass.
Amukamara, the reigning Pac-12 women’s basketball player of the week, had another outstanding game. She had 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting and helped hold UA’s leading scorer, redshirt senior guard Candice Warthen, to 13 points on 5-for-12 shooting.
“It started with our defense,” Turner Thorne said. “We did a good job at just forcing them into tough shots and running off of that.”
ASU did a better job today than Saturday at maintaining the big lead and keeping their energy high. Their lead got as high as 48 points, which came with 3:00 remaining on junior guard Isidora Purkovic's 3-point shot.
Purkovic has transitioned between the practice squad and receiving playing time. Today, she was 2-for-2 from the field, both of which were three-pointers.
“(She) works our scout team a lot,” Turner Thorne said. “She kills us. We’ll play great defense and she’ll still make shots. And then we’ll flip her over, she’ll be with us, and sometimes she doesn’t play with that same confidence.”
In an all-around strong performance from the team, Turner Thorne pointed out one thorn in ASU’s game: its rebounding. It wasn’t a poor effort; the team averages fewer than 38 per game, and today had 45. Five players brought down at least six boards.
However, Turner Thorne wants to see more out of her team.
“We’re rebounding hard every other possession,” she said. “(We) gave off rebounds off free throws, didn’t crash hard every possession, didn’t box every possession.”
She said that’s vital to fix. ASU is last in the Pac-12 in rebounds per game. Fixing those mistakes are necessary to defeat teams like Oregon, which has junior forward Jillian Alleyne, averaging 14.7 per game on her own. ASU only has one player in the Pac-12's top-20 in rebounding (Brunner, who pulls down 7.4 each contest).
Even with their flaws today, the rebounding looked better. The team played physically and once again dominated on defense while creating offensive looks.
“This team, we’re just relentless,” Turner Thorne said.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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