Finally at full strength, ASU women take on No. 5 UCLA
Arizona State women’s basketball will be as close to whole this weekend as its been all season.
Junior guard Iris Mbulito and freshmen forwards Katelyn Levings and Maggie Besselink are expected back for games against No. 5 UCLA on Friday and USC on Sunday.
That brings ASU back to 12 available players for the first time since Dec. 6 when, in the first meeting against UCLA, Mbulito suffered a shoulder injury in the second quarter. She’s played in only one game since, against Stanford on Jan. 3, due to her injury and COVID-19 protocol, which also kept Levings and Besselink out since Stanford.
So aside from the season opener, when junior forward Jayde Van Hyfte played but Besselink was out, and briefly against UCLA, coach Charli Turner Thorne will have a full dozen cards to play. Van Hyfte (knee) has been out the rest of the season.
“We’ve got three players (returning) that have essentially started every game they’ve been available,” Turner Thorne said. “We’ve got to blend them back in. All of our players kind of got better with more opportunities. Offensively, we’re just trying to get back our flow and get everybody working together. Today was our first full day in the gym with everybody, and it was a really good day. It’s honestly just fun to have our (full) team. We got after it and competed.”
With nine players last week, ASU (8-4, 4-4 Pac-12) split at home against Colorado (51-47 win) and Utah (65-51 loss), not the worst outcome being shorthanded and coming off a 19-day COVID layoff.
With nine regular season games remaining (six on the road), ASU’s primary goals are to secure a seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and to build enough chemistry for a young team (one senior) to potentially make some postseason noise.
Turner Thorne could go back to a starting lineup of Taya Hanson, Jaddan Simmons and Mbulito on the perimeter with posts Eboni Walker and Levings. Then she could bring Jamie Loera, Besselink and Imogen Greenslade, now with a combined 13 starts, off the bench along with four others.
“Depth for us is really important,” Turner Thorne said particularly against a team like UCLA (9-2, 7-2) that for much of the season has only gone seven deep.
In the first meeting, the Bruins
jumped to a 22-11 lead and held on for a 63-59 win over ASU. They’ve lost just once since, to No. 6 Stanford, and made up for that with a 70-66 win over the Cardinal in their last game on Jan. 22.
“They pressured us pretty good, but when they’re at home and know they only have one game (No. 10 Arizona is not playing this week due to COVID protocol) we’re going to get everything and the kitchen sink,” Turner Thorne said. “They’re just playing better. We’ve just got to be ready for their transition game. We did a decent job with it the first time.
They’re such a dominant rebounding team, and we’ve got to be ready to limit them to one shot. The best thing they do is play great pressure defense and they really play fast. We’re really trying to hammer home that they are better.”
Guard Charisma Osborne leads UCLA in scoring with an 18.6-point average, just ahead of WNBA first-round draft prospect forward Michaela Onyenwere (18.0). Guard Lindsey Corsaro hurt ASU in the first meeting with three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and 14 points overall.