Aggressive defense paid dividends and boosted the ASU women's basketball team (12-1, 1-0 Pac-12) to a 62-48 victory over the Washington Huskies (11-2, 0-1 Pac-12).
“We did a great, just kind of a masterful job of executing our defensive game plan,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
It wasn’t just aggression. ASU was smart about going for the loose balls and jumping into openings. In the first half, ASU forced 16 turnovers and committed just a single foul.
Senior guard Promise Amukamara was the catalyst on the defensive end. Her assignment was sophomore guard Kelsey Plum, the Division I scoring leader.
Amukamara succeeded in the first half — Plum turned the ball over five times in the half and was limited to four points.
“I joked right before the game, I said, ‘Okay, Nigerian Nightmare, go to work,” Turner Thorne said, referring to the team’s nickname for Amukamara.
She went to work. Amukamara said the team isn’t allowed to foul during practice and brought that to the court today. She got into foul trouble in the second half, picking up three more relatively quickly (in addition to a first-half foul), but managed to not foul out.
Turner Thorne said the team doesn’t play one-on-one against anybody — the entire ASU defense rotates and plays help defense on each offensive player. Sophomore forward Sophie Brunner reiterated Turner Thorne's comments.
“As a team, we were just really keying in on her and just knowing where she’s at all times,” she said. “Anytime there’s an opportunity to get a steal, we all were there.”
Brunner had four steals.
Amukamara had some first half help from Plum herself. The Washington guard wasn’t the primary ball-handler and off the ball, she tended to be immobile. She stood around the three-point line a lot without many cuts or screens.
In the second half, though, Plum was the production. The ball went through her, and she did what she could to get Washington going offensively.
Plum has an effective stutter-step in which she slightly lifts up her right leg, fakes left and drives by the defender. At the hoop was here she was most dangerous, and the majority of her baskets came from up close.
She scored 13 in the second half.
It was too little, too late, though, as the Sun Devils had ultimately put the game away in the first 20 minutes. By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, they were winning 37-16.
ASU's offense wasn’t spectacular. A lot of those first-half points came off of Washington’s 16 turnovers or ASU’s ten offensive rebounds.
“Our defense is what fills us up on offense,” Amukamara said.
First-chance buckets didn’t come. Particularly against zone defense, the team struggled to get production. ASU tended to pass the ball around the three-point line while the bigs down low would fight for position. Oftentimes, they wouldn’t get in position, leaving a shooter with little time left on the shot clock and the team forced to put up a desperation shot.
When the turnovers and second-chance baskets dwindled and Plum picked up her game, ASU began to struggle. Washington outscored them 35-25 in the second half.
“Our defense was okay the second half, our offense was not okay,” Turner Thorne said. “We just kept breaking plays. We were very undisciplined.”
A large part of this had to do with ASU’s motivation and energy dying down; up by 29 with 4:08 remaining, the game had long been been won.
However, the offense undoubtedly stalled in the second half. ASU was unable to find openings in the zone and the team wasn't able to take advantage of the man defense, with Thorne said can sometimes give ASU a good look.
“We were very impatient and undisciplined. We didn’t screen well,” Turner Thorne said. “We just didn’t execute the way that we need to.”
Despite poor offense in the second half and inconsistencies in the first, the game was easily won and should’ve been by a larger margin. ASU’s biggest flaw came from finishing layups. If the Sun Devils can fix that problem finishing easy baskets, they’ll be a team to be reckoned with.
“We probably should’ve scored 50 (in the first half),” Turner Thorne said laughing.
Reach the reporter at logan.newman@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Logan_Newsman
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