Dec. 12, 2012
TEMPE, Ariz. - Joy Burke scored a game-high 12 points to lead the Arizona State women's basketball team to a 72-39 win over San Deigo on Wednesday.
Janae Fulcher and Arnecia Hawkins each scored 11 points and Micaela Pickens added 10 for the Sun Devils (6-4), who won their third straight game. ASU shot 56 percent and hit 54 percent (7-13) of its 3-pointers. Pickens, who averaged 14.5 points and shot 56 percent in last week's wins at Providence and Boston College, continued her brilliance from the floor as she made all four of her field goal attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Adrianne Thomas set a new career high as she dished out eight of ASU's season-high 23 assists.
The Sun Devils never trailed after jumping out to an 8-0 lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Pickens and Isidora Purkovic gave ASU its first double-digit lead, 16-6 with 12:46 left in the first half. Purkovic's second three-pointer later in the half capped a 10-2 run to give the Sun Devils a 35-16 advantage.
ASU shot 67 percent in the first half on its way to building a 41-21 lead at the half.
San Diego (6-3) would get no closer than 16 points in the second half as the Sun Devils used several scoring spurts to thwart San Diego's attack.
Burke (10 points) and Hawkins (nine points) combined to score 19 of ASU's 31 second-half points. The duo teamed up to hit all three of ASU's 3-pointers in the second half - Burke (2) and Hawkins (1).
Wednesday's game had a local start time of 11 a.m. for the program's annual `Sparky's Kids to College Field Trip' game. The initiative is designed to introduce fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders, who made up much of the 2,005 fans in attendance on Wednesday, to a college campus.
ASU returns to action on Sat., Dec. 22 (noon MT) when it hosts Longwood.