Dec. 15, 2001
DeKALB, IL---Amanda Levens scored a game-high 26 points in her homecoming to lead Arizona State past Northern Illinois, 61-50, in non-conference women's basketball action here Saturday (Dec. 15).
Arizona State won its seventh game in a row, improving to 9-2 on the season. Northern Illinois saw its own four-game winning streak come to an end as the Huskies fell to 5-3 overall.
Levens, who grew up in nearby Belvidere, IL, tallied 18 of her points after the break as ASU pulled away to defend its No. 28 ranking in this week's Associated Press national poll. The Sun Devils---rated 30th by the ESPN/USA Today voters---also got 11 points from Melody Johnson. Jennifer Youngblood tallied 12 points and a game-high eight rebounds for Northern Illinois.
NIU raced out to an 18-4 lead, suffocating the Sun Devil attack for the first seven minutes as six different Huskies scored in that span. But Levens canned a three-pointer---her first points of the afternoon---at the 10:00 mark, and added a free throw as Arizona State scored ten unanswered points. A Rainy Crisp lay-up with 7:08 to play in the half trimmed the deficit to 18-14 and Levens' rebound putback gave the Sun Devils a 21-20 lead they never relinquished.
"I thought we had an opportunity today with a team like Arizona State coming here, and early on I thought our team was ready to play because we executed well," NIU coach Carol Hammerle said. "We then just became very inconsistent. Arizona State elevated their defense, and we struggled to score."
ASU closed the half on a 20-2 run, taking a 24-20 lead to the locker room. Northern Illinois missed 11 of its final 12 shots from the field before the intermission, shooting just 39 percent from the floor while Arizona State went nine-of-22 for 41 percent.
Levens' second trey pushed the magin into double digits, putting Arizona State ahead 37-25 at the 14:27 mark. The lead remained at 11 points (40-29) before the Huskies made one final charge. Two three-point plays from Youngblood capped a 10-2 run which cut the deficit to 42-39 with 8:30 left, but Betsy Boardman buried a three-pointer and Levens added two jumpers as the Sun Devils ran back out to a 52-41 lead with 5:33 to play. Northern Illinois never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
The Sun Devils shot 44.4 percent (20-of-45) from the field, including four three-pointers. That attack overcame a 17-of-30 performance by forcing 21 Huskie turnovers. Johnson was just five-of-13 from the stripe but grabbed seven rebounds as the Sun Devils won the battle of the boards, 34-31. Jessica Shattuck scored nine points for NIU, which shot 40.8 percent (20-of-49) but went scoreless from three-point range and took only 13 free throws, making ten. Kim Boeding adding eight and Kristan Knake tallying seven plus four assists for the hosts.
"Arizona State did a nice job of reading our defense. They were able to take what we gave them," Hammerle added. "After our initial start, they gave us a different look and we did not execute well."
Northern Illinois travels to Normal, IL, on Thursday (Dec. 20) to meet instate rival Illinois State for a 7:05 p.m. match-up. Arizona State returns to action Friday (Dec. 21), opening the Pacific-10 Conference schedule when Stanford visits for a 7 p.m. contest.