ASU set to face angry Oregon schools
Sun Devils pulled pair of huge upsets last time
Arizona State women’s basketball knows what its facing this weekend.
Not only two top 10-ranked opponents in No. 9 Oregon State and No. 3 Oregon but teams hungry for payback because No. 19 ASU blocked both from a chance to be No. 1 with upset wins in Tempe a month ago.
Oregon (20-2, 9-1 Pac-12) is 8-0 since losing 72-66 at ASU on Jan. 10 with five wins over teams currently in the top 12. To say the Ducks want to make up for their biggest blip of the season come Sunday is probably an understatement.
But Oregon, which played three road games in five days including at Connecticut on Monday, first must concern itself with No. 12 Arizona (18-3, 7-3) on Friday. And ASU (16-6, 6-4) has a major challenge of its own Friday against Oregon State (18-4, 6-4), especially since the Beavers are tied for fifth in the powerful Pac-12.
A fifth straight win over the Beavers would give ASU a tiebreaker advantage over Oregon State for Pac-12 Tournament seeding and at minimum a split on the most daunting road trip of the season.
The Sun Devils followed up their win over then No. 2 Oregon by beating then No. 3 Oregon State 55-47 on Jan. 12. They are 3-2 and Oregon State 3-3 since, so both are seeking traction going into the final month of the regular season.
“We’ve just got to focus on ourselves,”
ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “I feel like this team hasn’t really taken to heart the preparation and adjustments we need to make,” when playing for the second time against a Pac-12 opponent. “So we’ve really been on them this week about that.
“Here’s the things we think they’re going to do differently and here’s the things we need to do differently. I feel like if we do that, we’ve got a great chance to win. But I don’t think we’ve done a great job of that in our first three review games (losses to Arizona and No. 10 UCLA and a three-overtime win over USC).”
How does that apply vs. Oregon State? It’s a virtual lock that the Beavers will shoot better before a rabid home crowd than they did in Tempe — 31.1 percent overall, 2-of-20 from 3-point — so ASU needs to be prepared to raise its offensive game and not necessarily expect a defensive duel. The Sun Devils also must rebound better than in the first game when the taller Oregon State team had a 47-37 advantage.
Unlike last week, when the Sun Devils committed a combined 42 turnovers, they need to protect the ball like they did against the Oregon schools in round one (16 combined turnovers).
Other than Jamie Ruden, ASU’s bench was not as productive as needed in a 7061 loss to UCLA, and starting center Ja’Tavia Tapley has dropped off to 7-point, 4-rebound averages over the last three games.
ASU senior guard Reili Richardson is closing in on the school assists record. She has 523, 15 behind Briann January’s record set from 2006-09. Richardson is scoring more and distributing less this season but still averaging a team high 3.0 assists so it could take another five games for her to surpass January.
“I’m kind of known as a shooter now so they’re taking me off the line more,” said Richardson, who has a team high 33 3-pointers. “So I’ve been working on getting my feet down quicker and my footwork.”
Guards Mikayla Pivec and Destiny Slocum remain Oregon State’s scoring leaders, tied at 14.5 ppg, with 6-4 freshman F Taylor Jones also in double figures (12.9). The Beavers also start 6-6 Kennedy Brown.