ASU starts hot but still falls to Cardinal
The Arizona State women’s basketball team had a strong start against No. 6 Stanford, but it wasn’t enough when the Cardinal found its second gear.
ASU trailed by single digits in the opening frame, but a poor performance in the second quarter helped extend the Cardinal lead into double digits and the Sun Devils couldn’t recover, losing 8050 on Friday at Desert Financial Arena.
Cameron Brink lived up to her billing and was unstoppable against ASU, tallying a double-double in the first half with 16 points and 13 rebounds. With Stanford’s reserves playing most of the second half, Brink played sparingly, but finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds.
Kiki Iriafen provided the other half of the Stanford one-two punch and recorded a double-double with a teamleading 27 points and 14 rebounds.
ASU committed 18 personal fouls and gave Stanford 19 trips to the free throw line. Brink and Iriafen went a combined 13-of-13 at the free throw line.
“This particular team, your margin of error is pretty much zero. Was I proud that we executed and got the shots that we wanted? Yes, but we got to knock them down,” head coach Natasha Adair said. “It’s not for a lack of fight or a lack of toughness with our group. We just told them to take what we like and take what we learn and get ready for our game on Sunday.”
Guard Jaddan Simmons went down at 7:14 in the fourth quarter after taking an elbow to the eye and didn’t return for the remainder of the game. Simmons’ status was unknown after the game.
Key moments
Even with the Cardinal dominating the boards with a 28-13 edge in the first half, ASU played a hard first quarter and trailed by four points. However, the tide turned quickly following the first 10 minutes.
The early momentum dissipated in the second quarter when ASU’s offense struggled with one field goal on 16 attempts. Backed from a 13-1 run and
Brink’s presence, the Cardinal outscored ASU 16-6 in the quarter.
ASU put forth a better output in the third, scoring seven quick points, but Stanford soon caught up with a 7-0 run. ASU continued to struggle with turnovers, committing five in the quarter.
There were several instances of miscommunication, including when Trayanna Crisp stole the ball off a turnover by Iriafen and passed the ball up to an unaware Journey Thompson. Stanford forward Brooke Demetre quickly grabbed the ball and then set up Courtney Ogden on the fast break at 2:21 for a 58-37 lead.
Top performers
Jalyn Brown once again led ASU’s offense with 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting and one 3-pointer.
Crisp played all 40 minutes and stepped up in Simmons’ absence later in the game, recording 16 points and four steals.
They said it
“We saw the ball go in early and as much as coaches tell players to don’t get married to offense and get married to defense, you and I both know that you see that ball go in and get a little extra bounce in your step. I thought the shots we had made in the first, we got the same in the second and they didn’t go in. I don’t know if that’s just us pressing or we’re frustrated, but that’s where we will continue to mature.” — head coach Natasha Adair on the second quarter’s problems.
“As a post player, there are ways that you learn how to guard other post players. When you fall short, it’s hard when you’re playing against good post players. Just for us, being where we needed to be in order to help them as much as possible playing with a height difference, we’re going to have to do better.” — guard Jalyn Brown on playing against Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen.
Up next
ASU (9-11, 1-7 in Pac-12) will host California at 12 p.m. on Sunday. After that, the Sun Devils won’t play until heading to Tucson for a 12 p.m. matchup against Arizona on Feb. 4.