Jan. 10, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. - Senior Amanda Levens scored a game-high 20 points as the Sun Devil women's basketball team downed the Washington Huskies 66-61 Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
The win is the second straight for the Sun Devils and improves the team to 13-4 on the year and 4-2 in the Pac-10. Washington falls to 9-6 overall and 4-2 in the conference.
Arizona State jumped ahead early, taking a 13-6 lead with 13:52 to play in the half. The Sun Devils quickly pushed their lead into double digits on a pair of three-pointers by Levens and led by as many as 12 points en route to a 35-24 halftime advantage.
ASU outshot the Huskies 50 to 38.5 percent and outrebounded them 20-11 in the first 20 minutes, while Levens had 14 of her 20 points and knocked down 4-of-6 looks from three-point land in the first half.
Washington stormed back in the second half, forcing three Arizona State turnovers and scoring the first eight points of the half. UW freshman Kristen O'Neill hit a pair of three-pointers and junior Cheryl Sorenson knocked down a bucket by to cut the lead to three points, 35-32, with 17:41 to play. ASU then went on a 13-5 run to restore its 11-point lead when sophomore Betsy Boardman knocked down her second three-pointer of the game to make it 48-37 with 13:21 to play,
The Huskies made one more run in the game to get within three points twice more when junior Kellie O'Neill converted a pair of free throws to make it 61-58 with 3:02 left in the game and sophomore Giuliana Mendiola hit a three-pointer to make it 64-61 with 58 seconds remaining. ASU, however, knocked down 5-of-7 free throw attempts over the final three minutes of the game to hold onto the 66-61 victory.
Levens turned in her 10th 20-point effort of the season with 20 points. Levens also led the Sun Devils with five assists and contributed four rebounds and two steals in the effort. ASU senior Melody Johnson turned in 14 points, while senior Cian Carvalho led the game with nine rebounds.
For Washington, freshman Kayla Burt led the team with 15 points, knocking down 4-of-6 attempts from the field and all seven of her free throws, while Kristen O'Neill chipped in with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting which included a pair of three-pointers.
As a team, the Sun Devils outrebounded the Huskies 44-30 but were outshot 39.3 to 40.4 percent from the field.
Arizona State returns to action Saturday night, playing host to the Washington State Cougars at 7 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.