TEMPE, Ariz. – Kelsey Moos hit her first seven shots and Katie Hempen scored a career-high 21 points as the No. 18 Arizona State women’s basketball team defeated the visiting Washington State Cougars 78-64 Monday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
Moos finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Hempen tied her career high with five assists. Sophie Brunner posted 15 points and seven rebounds and Elisha Davis added 13 points and five assists for the Sun Devils (13-1, 2-0 Pac-12), who won their ninth straight contest while snapping Washington State’s six-game winning streak.
ASU shot 53 percent for the game, including 44 percent from beyond the arc (7-16), and also helped its cause at the free throw line where it connected on 88 percent of its attempts (15-17).
Lia Galdeira led Washington State (10-3, 1-1) with 19 points and nine rebounds and Tia Presley added 15 points for the Cougars, but both players had a hard time taking care of the ball, finishing with six and seven turnovers respectively.
“I thought Katie Hempen had a tremendous game on both sides of the ball,” head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “She’s so smart. She really knows how to take away the strengths of a player.”
The Sun Devils started off strong, as a Quinn Dornstauder’s layup with 17:15 left in the first half gave ASU a 9-0 lead.
Hot shooting was the story of the half for ASU, as the Sun Devils shot a blistering 61 percent (17-28) on their way to a 43-29 halftime lead.
Moos and Hempen both scored 10 points and Brunner had eight points in the first half to lead ASU. Galdeira paced the Cougars with 11 in the opening half.
After hitting seven of their first 10 shots to start the game, the Sun Devils missed four of their first six shots of the second half and a layup from Taylor Edmondson brought Washington State to within 10 with 15:30 left to play.
But the Cougars would not get any closer than that. ASU was able to stretch its lead to as large as 18 in the second half.
“I just thought we showed incredible toughness tonight,” Turner Thorne said. “Washington State is a good team and I think we just stayed with things and played great team defense.”
Next up for the Sun Devils are two games against the University of Arizona. ASU travels down to Tucson to take on the Wildcats Thursday 8 at 6 p.m. MT and will then host Arizona on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT in Tempe. Both games will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks.
GAME NOTES
ASU finished with 19 assists, while Washington State finished with 11. The Sun Devils have now finished with more assists than the opposition in 12 of 14 games this season.
The Sun Devils shot 15-17 (88 percent) from the free throw line Monday night. Both Katie Hempen (7-7) and Elisha Davis (5-5) were perfect from the line.
Washington State drew within 10 and 12 points a total of 16 times in the second half, but could not get within single digits.