Jan. 9, 2005
TEMPE, Ariz.--Senior Kylan Loney scored 15 and senior Carrie Buckner added 11 as the 24th-ranked Arizona State women's basketball team won a defensive battle against California 66-57 Sunday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.
ASU improved to 11-4 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10, while Cal lost its second straight game and fell to 8-7 and 2-4 on the season.
With the victory, ninth-year Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne collected her 134th career win, tying Juliene Simpson as the winningest coach in ASU women's basketball history. Turner Thorne is 134-116 in her nine years in Tempe, while Simpson turned in a 134-92 record from 1979-87.
After Cal took an early five-point lead, the Sun Devils used a 9-2 run to go up 15-13. The Golden Bears tied it at 15 with 8:10 to play, but ASU got baskets from Loney and senior Betsy Boardman to regain the lead, which it didn't relinquish again in the half, at 19-15. The Sun Devils ended the half on an 8-0 run to take a 30-21 advantage into the locker room. ASU outshot Cal 50.0 percent to 29.2 and outrebounded the Bears 22-9 in the first half.
In the second half, the Golden Bears stormed back, scoring the first nine points of the period to tie the game at 30 with 16:38 to play. ASU, however, answered with an 11-0 run with five different players scoring to regain a 41-30 lead four minutes later. Cal would again cut into the advantage, getting within four points three times late in the second half. Loney knocked down a pair of pull-up jumpers to start a 9-0 ASU run which gave the Sun Devils a 60-47 lead with 1:34 to play, and the team came away with the 66-57 victory.
Loney knocked down 5-of-7 second-half shots and had 11 of her game-high 15 points in the final 20 minutes to lead ASU to the victory. Buckner tied her season highs with 11 points and five assists, grabbed a season-best eight rebounds and added three steals. Junior Amy Denson pulled down seven rebounds, including six offensive boards, for the Sun Devils who outrebounded the Bears 40-27 in the game, including a 16-6 advantage on the offensive glass.
For Cal, freshman center Jessica Lawson and senior guard Kristin Iwanaga led the team with 12 points apiece, while senior Leigh Gregory had six rebounds. The game saw 45 fouls called (26 by Cal) and a combined 47 turnovers.
Arizona State returns to action next week, traveling to No. 22/23 UCLA on Friday, Jan. 14 and USC on Sunday, Jan. 16. The UCLA game will tip off at 7 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. MT) and can be heard on NBC 1190 AM, while the game at USC will tip off at 12 p.m. PT (1 p.m. MT) and will be televised nationally by Fox Sports Net. The contest with the Women of Troy can also be heard on ESPN Radio KMVP 860 AM.