ASU women's basketball came out of the gate flat and was never able to recover, falling to USC 65-57 on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.
The Sun Devils (8-5, 4-5) continued what has been a recurring trend this season, digging themselves into a 21-point hole, mounting a late comeback in the second half, only to fall short.
On her postgame radio spot on KDUS 1060, ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne voiced her frustration in this trend and noted the team will have to break the trend if it wants to turn the season around.
"If they want to have a winning season this year, they've got to figure out how to start a game," Turner Thorne said. "This is the second game in a row where we basically played horrible defense and horrible offense in the first quarter, and that's a bad combination in our conference."
Even before the game started, Turner Thorne could tell her team wasn't ready to play.
"They were not ready to play this game and we even knew it as coaches when they went out and did their pre-shooting," Turner Thorne said.
ASU struggled offensively on Sunday, which Turner Thorne attributed to a lack of practice time and a young roster who haven't grasped the team's offensive game plan.
"Our team barely knows our playbook to begin with," Turner Thorne said. "It really limits us offensively … and we have a lot of people messing up out there."
Freshman guard Jaddan Simmons led the team in scoring, finishing with 16 points, but left the game in the closing seconds as she came off the court, hobbled.
Simmons' status remains up in the air, but Turner Thorne mentioned she was able to walk after the game and doesn't believe the injury will be serious going forward.
"We think she looks good, that she's going to be okay, which is, you know, huge relief," Turner Thorne said. "I mean, I think, honestly, she was the one bright spot today."
ASU will get some much-needed practice time before hitting the road to face off with Oregon on Friday, Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at ltochter@asu.edu and follow @Leo_Toch on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.
