ASU loses its third in a row

Arizona State women’s basketball again fell into a deep first-half hole Sunday that it could not escape, suffering a third consecutive loss 65-57 at USC.

USC built a 40-19 lead late in the second quarter at the Galen Center then fought off the Sun Devils, who rallied to within five points twice in the final 66 seconds.

Trojans sophomore guard Endyia Rogers tied her career high, set against ASU last season in a triple overtime game, with 30 points. She had 20 at halftime then scored 10 of USC’s 15 in the fourth to ensure a win in the Trojans only game of the week.

ASU (8-6, 4-6 Pac-12) also lost Friday, 60-57 at No. 5 UCLA after trailing by 18 in the second quarter.

“I know we’re very young,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said in her post-game radio comments. “If they want to have a winning season, they’ve got to figure out how to start a game. It’s everybody in the first quarter taking turns. We played horrible defense and offense in the first quarter. That’s a bad combination in our conference.

“Our mental and emotional approach is not what it needs to be right now. We just have to work on that. We do have people that sat out almost three weeks (due to COVID protocol). We’ve got to get our rhythm back and flow, but that’s just an excuse really.”

ASU has been outscored by a combined 178-102 in the first quarter.

“They don’t know how to get themselves ready,” Turner Thorne said. “It was almost surreal how bad we were in the first quarter defensively. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare, but it’s not like we were switching defenses. We just tried to get back to man and we just struggled to do that.”

“I know we’re very young.

If they want to have a

winning season, they’ve

got to figure out how to

start a game.” Charli Turner Thorne ASU basketball coach

ASU had a 19-10 edge in the third quarter as USC, 8-of-11 from 3-point in the first half, cooled off. The Trojans were 0-of-6 from 3-point in the second half.

USC led 50-42 after the third and lost Jordan Sanders to an injury early in the fourth. Rogers kept the Trojans in front in a 15-15 fourth quarter.

Taya Hanson hit a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth, the second with 1:06 left cutting USC’s lead to 60-55. Jaddan Simmons made two free throws with 42.6 seconds left for 62-57 then USC closed out the game by hitting 3-of-4 free throws.

Simmons led ASU with 16 points but went down with an apparent leg injury in the closing seconds. She was able to walk off the court, and Turner Thorne said she believes that Simmons did not suffer anything serious. Hanson added 12 points.

The Trojans improved to 7-7, 5-6, getting a split vs. ASU after losing 6358 in Tempe on Dec. 4.