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The Arizona State women's basketball team begins play in the 2010 Women's National Invitation Tournament this Wednesday (6:30 p.m. PT) at Wells Fargo Arena when it hosts New Mexico State in a first-round game.
The Sun Devils (17-13, 9-9 Pac-10) are making their 11th consecutive postseason appearance, which includes a recent streak of five consecutive NCAA Tournament bids. Twice during that streak the Sun Devils played for a chance to go to the NCAA Women's Final Four, most recently last season when it fell to current reigning champion Connecticut in the Trenton Region final.
Despite the loss of six seniors from last year's team, including WNBA first-round pick Briann January, and being without their leading scorer from 2008-09 (Dymond Simon), the Sun Devils still found themselves in contention for an NCAA berth during the season's stretch run. However an injury to starting point guard Tenaya Watson began a difficult eight-game stretch to close the season in which the Sun Devils went 3-5. Three of ASU's losses during that stretch were by four or fewer points, including a 63-59 setback at UCLA (a 2010 NCAA Tournament participant).
New Mexico State (18-13, 8-8 WAC) is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference. The Aggies are led by senior guard Crystal Boyd, who earned second-team All-WAC honors after leading the team in points per game (15.5), rebounds per game (7.7), steals per game (2.3) and blocks per game (1.6).
The winner of Wednesday's game will face either BYU or Pepperdine in the second round (date and site to be determined).
TICKETS
Tickets can be purchased either on the phone (480-727-0000) or at the ASU ticket office. Tickets prices are $6 for reserved seats, $5 for general admission, $4 for students and $3 for groups of 15 or more.
RADIO
Wednesday's game can be heard live on The Fan AM 1060. Pre-game coverage will begin at 6 p.m. Veteran broadcaster Jeff Munn is in his sixth season as the voice of ASU women's basketball. He will be joined on the broadcast by former Arizona State women's basketball coach Maura McHugh.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
ASU returns two starters - forward Kayli Murphy and guard Danielle Orsillo - from last year's active roster that went 26-9 and earned the program's second Elite Eight berth in the last three years. Of ASU's returning players, only seniors Kayli Murphy and Danielle Orsillo and junior Becca Tobin saw significant playing time last season.
The Sun Devils are without last season's leading scorer Dymond Simon as she spends the season rehabbing from the knee injury she suffered in the 2009 regular-season finale at Stanford. Also missing for the 2009-10 season because of injury is junior guard Markisha Patterson, who transferred to ASU from Central Arizona where she was a teammate of guard Tenaya Watson, who also transferred to ASU.
ASU is making its 11th consecutive postseason appearance. The Sun Devils began their current streak with their first WNIT appearance in 2000. ASU then made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament (2001-02) followed by back-to-back appearances in the WNIT (2003-04) before beginning a streak of five consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, the longest such streak in school history.
The Sun Devils will be appearing in the WNIT for the fourth time. Their best finish came in 2003 when they made it to the second round after first-round exits in 2000 and 2004.
Despite finishing in fifth place in the Pac-10 this season, ASU has still won 76 percent (68-22) of its Pac-10 contests since the 2005-06 season.
This will be the ninth all-time meeting between the Sun Devils and Aggies. The Aggies have been victorious in five of the previous eight contests, however Wednesday's meeting will be the first between the two school since 1997.
On Wednesday the Sun Devils will be at home where they are 76-14 (.843) since the 2004-05 season, including a 32-4 record (.889) against non-conference teams.
Currently ASU's leading scorer averaging 14.2 points per game, senior G Danielle Orsillo has scored in double figures in all but five contests this season. Last month Orsillo set a new career best in scoring in back-to-back contests as she scored 26 points at Oregon State (Feb. 11) only to surpass that mark with 29 at Oregon (Feb. 13). Her final scoring tally at Oregon represented the most points by a Sun Devil since G Kylan Loney scored 32 against Arizona in 2004.
Orsillo currently ranks No. 6 in program history with 1,358 points. She needs 6 points to pass Kristen Kovesdy (2003-06) for 5th place, 13 points to pass Sherry Poole (1984-87) for 4th place and 17 points to pass Molly Tuter (1994-97) for 3rd place.
ASU's 126 blocks this season are the second-highest number in school history. The Sun Devils would need more blocks to break the single-season record for the fourth consecutive season.
Currently 5th place on ASU's all-time career list with 76 blocks, junior Becca Tobin needs four more rejections to pass Rachel Holt (1997-00) for 4th place.
Tobin (30-32) and senior F Kayli Murphy (39-44) have combined to make 69 of their last 76 free throws (.918).