Nov. 26, 2010
FREEPORT, Bahamas - Dymond Simon and Becca Tobin scored 11 points each and Janae Fulcher added 10 as the Arizona State women's basketball team defeated Providence 63-56 in the first round of the Junkanoo Jam's Freeport Division.
The Sun Devils (3-1) never trailed in the game, leading by as many as 15. However the Friars (3-3) hung tough, getting as close as five points several times in the second half before a 13-4 run by the Sun Devils enabled them to take control of the game.
ASU came through with a strong defensive effort, limiting the Friars to a 35-percent shooting effort. Keeping the Friars in the game was an 18-6 advantage in second-chance points as they held a slight advantage in rebounding (43-42, including a 19-17 edge on the offensive glass).
"We did a good job of staying with things," said ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne. "It should have been a 15- or 20-point win, but we played really soft down the stretch. It was a good lesson for us in terms of our end-of-the-game defense.
"I thought we struggled with our shot selection and our discipline on offense. We took care of the ball and played pretty good defense, but the bottom line is we have to figure some things out there offensively."
Coming off their first loss of the season to the fourth-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols on Sunday, the Sun Devils came out with a barrage on offense as they took an early 20-6 lead.
Joy Burke's layup with 3:29 left in the first half gave the Sun Devils their biggest lead of the game, 30-15.
Finding itself in position to possibly runaway with the contest before the half, ASU's offense suddenly went cold, missing its next five shots. The Friars would take advantage reeling off eight consecutive points to get within seven, 30-23, before Sun Devil guard Tenaya Watson hit a jumper with two seconds remaining in the half to give ASU a nine-point halftime advantage.
The Friars came out and scored four of the first six points of the second half to get within five, 34-29, before the Sun Devils came back with a six-point flurry to reclaim a double-digit lead, 40-29.
Just when it appeared ASU might take control, Providence responded with a six-point run of its own to once again trim the lead to five, 40-35.
Following an exchange of baskets, the Sun Devil defense dug in and limited the Friars to a single field goal over a period of nearly five minutes. ASU outscored Providence 11-2 over that span to take a 53-39 lead following Deja Mann's beat-the-shot-clock 3-pointer with 3:14 left.
The Sun Devils would extend out as far as a 14 points, 55-41, before the Friars made one last run to once again get within five, 61-56 in the game's closing seconds.
Mann led the Sun Devils in the second half, scoring all nine of her points in the game's final 15 minutes. Fulcher, who has hit 82 percent of her shots (9-11) in ASU's last two contests, added six as she hit all three of her field goal attempts in the second half.
The Sun Devils return to action on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET/6 p.m. MT) when they face Florida State in the championship game of the Junkanoo Jam's Freeport Division. The 14th-ranked Seminoles defeated Alabama 68-61 on Friday night.