ASU women look to upset No. 18 Arizona
Charli Turner Thorne remains consistent in her stance on Arizona women’s basketball.
She prefers for her team’s travel partner to have a strong program because it benefits Arizona State more over an 18-game Pac-12 season more than it hurts in two rivalry games.
When it requires a full effort vs. UA on Friday, she figures, there is less left in the tank against ASU on Sunday.
To Turner Thorne’s credit, she isn’t backtracking even though the Wildcats now are nationally ranked at No. 18 and ASU is not. “It’s one of the fun things about the Pac-12,” she said of the partner rivalries. “But it still counts as one game.”
That’s perspective built on 23 years, 454 wins and 14 NCAA Tournament appearances at ASU. Fans might be outraged by a clunker against Arizona, like a 51-39 loss in the first meeting last season, but Turner Thorne is confident it won’t happen again. Sure enough, the Sun Devils won 60-47 in the rematch, improving to 32-6 against UA since 2004.
Adia Barnes, in her fourth season at Arizona, is 2-5 vs. ASU going into Sunday’s game in Tempe that starts the Pac-12 season. At 11-0, the Wildcats are off to their best start ever, extending their overall win streak to a nation leading 17 including six required to win the 2019 WNIT title.
ASU is not far behind at 10-2 with a better strength of schedule (No. 172, UA No. 291). The Sun Devils are on a six-game win streak.
Four Pac-12 teams are undefeated and three others have no more than two losses. Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford and UCLA are ranked in the top 10 of both major polls with the Ducks and Cardinal already spending time at No. 1.
It’s a conference that will chew some teams up and likely leave no one unscathed. The last five Pac-12 champions, including ASU in 2015-16, had two losses and no champ has gone undefeated since Stanford in 2011-12.
ASU plays four nationally ranked teams in its first five Pac-12 games followed by another similar stretch in late January/early February. The most manageable part of the conference schedule on paper is the final three weeks with five of six games vs. currently unranked opponents.
It all starts Sunday with a match-up of defensive powers. UA leads the nation in scoring defense (43.6 ppg) and ASU is No. 18 (54.0).
“Their defense was really good last year,” Turner Thorne said. “It’s kind of like us, sometimes you don’t realize until you play against it. Kind of like us, they’re turning people over and getting out in transition so that’ll be interesting with both teams wanting to do that. You do have two very good defensive teams with a lot of good scoring too.”
UA junior guard Aari McDonald averages 19.9 points and sophomore forward Cate Reese 14.0. Senior forward Ja’Tavia Tapley leads ASU with a 12.3point average and seniors Jamie Ruden, Robbi Ryan and Reili Richardson all can reach double figures in a given game.
Tapley, a transfer from USC, is facing Arizona for the first time as a Sun Devil.
“I’m ready for the challenge, I can’t wait,” Tapley said. “I didn’t really get a chance to play against them as much when I was at USC so hopefully I’m able to showcase a lot of stuff like rebounding, sharing the ball, same thing I do any other time I’m playing. It’s going to very fun, I know that for sure.
“It comes with a lot of focus, just wanting to be the one on top. At long as we come in with that mindset, I know for sure we can beat them.”
McDonald was a big problem getting to the basket in the first meeting last season when she scored 24. She had even more (28) in the second game, but no other Wildcat scored more than five.
“You just try to limit her,” Turner Thorne said. “She’s a three-level scorer. It’s hard to guard that for 40 minutes. But the good news is Reili, Kiki ((Russell) and Robbi are familiar with her. That helps. Even (Oregon’s Sabrina) Ionescu, when you’ve played against them, it’s like OK I know what you want to do. That doesn’t mean you can take it away every time.”
Pac-12 women’s basketball
No. 18 Arizona 11-0, Colorado 11-0, No. 3 Oregon State 11-0, UCLA 11-0, No. 2 Oregon 10-1, No. 4 Stanford 10-1, Arizona State 10-2, USC 8-3, Washington 8-3, California 7-3, Utah 7-4, Washington State 7-5. (Rankings from USA Today coaches poll).