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TEMPE, Ariz. – Katie Hempen scored a career-high 23 points and ninth-ranked Arizona State used its hot shooting and lockdown defense to defeat the Ohio Bobcats 74-55 in the first round of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.
Sophie Brunner added 14 points and six rebounds and Arnecia Hawkins tied her season high with 12 points for the Sun Devils (28-5), who will face UALR in Monday night’s second round at Wells Fargo Arena.
Ohio (27-5) was led by Quiera Lampkins, who finished with 17 points.
The Sun Devils shot 56 percent for the game, including 50 percent (8-16) from long range. ASU’s eight triples came up one short of tying its season high. Hempen’s five triples were one short of her career high.
On the other end of the floor, the Sun Devils proved their perimeter defense was up to the test as they held Ohio, which came into the game third in the nation averaging 9.4 three per game, to only four. The Bobcats knocked down only 25 percent of their 3-point attempts (4-16) on the day.
“I'm really proud of our team,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We had to work hard and I thought we did. I thought we had a complete effort from our entire team.”
Down by two points five minutes into the game, the Sun Devils would use a pair of scoring runs over the last 15 minutes of the half to take control.
Promise Amukamara, Hempen, Elisha Davis, Kelsey Moos, and Brunner each contributed to ASU’s first scoring burst, a 13-0 run over a three-minute stretch that gave the Sun Devils a 19-8 lead with 11:55 left.
Ohio would find its way back into the game, eventually getting the lead down to eight on a pair of occasions. The Bobcats would get no closer the rest of the game as Hempen knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Brunner scored on a layup with five seconds left to help ASU close the half on an 8-0 run and go into the locker room with a 41-25 lead. Hempen led the way after the first 20 minutes with 14 points.
The Sun Devils were never seriously threatened in the second half as they used a 16-0 run to take their largest lead of the game, 69-40 with 9:25 remaining.
The Sun Devils forced Ohio into 18 turnovers on Saturday and scored 20 points off those miscues.
“When our defense is turning people over and we're getting easy buckets in transition, that's when we're at our best,” Turner Thorne said. “I thought our defense looked fantastic at times, against a team that's done a great job of taking care of the ball. They don't pass a lot. They take you one-on-one a lot. They couldn't get to the rim and then they couldn't find teammates, and that was just our team was working really hard.”
The Sun Devils, who are the No. 3 seed in the Greensboro Region, will host the No. 11 seed, UALR (29-4), on Monday at 6 p.m. with a berth in the Sweet 16 on the line. The Trojans advanced to the second round by defeating Texas A&M (No. 6 seed) 69-60 in the first game on Saturday.
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