March 20, 2003
TEMPE, Ariz. - Freshman Jill Noe scored 18 points as the Arizona State women's basketball team downed Hawai'i 57-44 Thursday night at Wells Fargo Arena in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament.
With the victory, Arizona State improved to 16-13 overall and snapped a two-game losing streak, while Hawai'i ends its season with a 16-14 record.
Arizona State will travel to Waco, Texas, to take on the Baylor Lady Bears Sunday at 5 p.m. Central/4 p.m. Mountain in the second round of the WNIT. ASU's flagship station, NBC 1190 AM, will broadcast Sunday's game to a local audience, while the game can also be heard via the internet at www.thesundevils.com.
The Sun Devils built an early lead, scoring nine straight points after letting Hawai'i put the first two points on the board. The Rainbow Wahine scored the next eight points to take a 10-9 lead of their own with 12:56 to play. The game stayed close over the next eight minutes with each team taking a brief lead. The Sun Devils scored the final six points of the half to force an 18-18 tie with 4:44 left in the half and then take a 22-18 halftime lead despite being outshot 25 percent to 36.8 percent. Freshman Kristen Kovesdy led the Sun Devils with nine points on 3-of-5 shooting, while the Sun Devils outrebounded the Rainbow Wahine 23-12 in the first 20 minutes.
Arizona State took control of the game to start the second half when Noe nailed a three-pointer just 11 seconds into the half to give ASU a 25-18 lead. Hawai'i scored the next four points to cut the Sun Devil lead to three points, but Noe knocked down her second trey of the half to put ASU up by six points. The Rainbow Wahine would cut the lead to four with 10:31 to play, but ASU scored the next six points of the game to take a 40-30 lead with 8:57 left. After shooting just 25 percent in the first half, ASU knocked down 48 percent of its attempts in the second half and did not allow Hawai'i to get closer than seven points en route to the 57-44 victory.
Noe finished with a game-high 18 points and four assists, scoring 13 points in the second half and tying her career high with four three-pointers in the game. Noe and Kovesdy each turned in a team-high eight rebounds, while Kovesdy also added 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Sophomore Kylan Loney had a team-best five assists.
Jade Abele and Kim Willoughby each had 11 points to lead Hawai'i, while Christen Roper had 10 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots.
ASU outrebounded Hawai'i by a 45-29 margin in the game and allowed the Rainbow Wahine a defensive season low of 44 points.