CORVALLIS, Ore. – Despite a game-high 24 points from Sophie Brunner, the No. 12 Arizona State women’s basketball team was unable to overcome a 51-percent shooting effort and timely scoring by No. 8 Oregon State as the Beavers held off ASU 70-64 on Friday night.
Also scoring in double figures for the Sun Devils, who were without starting sophomore forward Kelsey Moos (elbow injury), were Katie Hempen (13 points) and Quinn Dornstauder (10 points). Dornstauder made her first career start in place of Moos.
With the loss, the Sun Devils (21-4, 10-3 Pac-12) slipped into a third-place tie in the Pac-12 with No. 19 Stanford (18-7, 10-3). Both teams trail second-place Cal (19-5, 11-2) by one game and the first-place Beavers (22-2, 12-1) by two games.
Brunner scored 20 points in the second half as she accounted for more than half of ASU’s 37 points over the final 20 minutes. She also added six rebounds, one steal and one assist while knocking down 70 percent of her field goal attempts (7-10) and 83 percent of her free throws (10-12).
Ruth Hamblin scored 11 of her 17 points in the second half to lead the Beavers, who shot 51 percent from the field, including 58 percent in the second half. Sydney Wiese (15 points) and Ali Gibson (14 points) also came through with solid contributions for the Beavers.
Trailing 60-51 with 4:27 remaining, the Sun Devils scored six straight points to get within three with less than three minutes left. Hempen and Promise Amukamara both connected on jumpers while Brunner hit a pair of free throws during the scoring run.
Jamie Weisner, who scored all eight of her points in the second half, knocked down a pair of free throws at the opposite end to put the Beavers back up by five.
Oregon State would eventually go up 64-58 but Hempen answered with a 3-pointer to make it 64-61. Hempen would then force a turnover with 1:19 left giving ASU a chance to tie or pull within a point. However the Devils would not get a shot off as Gabriella Hanson came up with a steal and layup to make it a two-possession game, 66-61, with 1:11 left.
Brunner came back with a layup to get ASU within three points again, but Samantha Siegner would answer with a jumper as the shot clock was running down to once again make it a five-point game.
ASU would come up empty on its next possession and the Beavers would put the game out of reach with a pair of free throws.
Although the final result was the same as the meeting between the two teams on Jan. 25 in Tempe – a 68-57 Oregon State win in which the Beavers led by as many as 20 early in the second half – there was a big difference in how the two games were decided.
While Oregon State led by as many as 10 in the second half of Friday’s game, ASU remained a dangerous threat the entire contest as it battled back time and again.
When the Beavers went up 18-10 in the first half, the Sun Devils came back with six straight points coming courtesy of Dornstauder (four points) and Hempen (two points).
When Oregon State built its lead back up to seven with 2:33 left in the first half, ASU would score seven of the next nine points as a 3-pointer by Hempen and jumpers by Brunner and Elisha Davis cut OSU’s advantage to 29-27 at the intermission.
When the Beavers pushed their lead up to 10 midway through the second half, Ayanna Edwards and Brunner came back with consecutive baskets to keep ASU within striking distance.
Later, OSU would go up by nine only to see the Devils bounce back by scoring eight of the game’s next 10 points to cut the deficit to three.
On the flip side, the Sun Devils got within two or three points eight times in the second half, but were never able to go ahead or pull even. Similar to the way the Devils would respond each time the Beavers tried to pull away, Oregon State would find away to come up with points each time ASU got within a possession of tying or taking the lead.
When ASU got within 35-33 early in the second half, the Beavers used a 10-2 run to go up 45-35. Hamblin (5 points), Wiese (3 points) and Weisner (2 points) accounted for the points in the run.
Later, three free throws by Arnecia Hawkins and a 3-point play by Brunner had ASU within three, 52-49 with 8:19 left. However Weisner and Deven Hunter would counter with consecutive jumpers to once again give the Beavers some separation in the form of a seven-point lead.
The Sun Devils return to action on Sunday (4:30 p.m. PT/5:30 p.m. MT) when they take on Oregon. The game can be seen on Pac-12 Networks and can be heard on NBC Sports AM 1060.