Arizona State University women’s basketball senior guard Katie Hempen earned a gold medal representing the United States as Team USA defeated Canada 82-63 in the 2015 World University Games championship game on Monday evening in Gwangju, South Korea. The gold medal is the USA women's sixth-straight and 10th overall in World University Games history.
Also bringing a medal back to Tempe will be Hempen’s Sun Devil teammate Quinn Dornstauder, who earned a silver medal as the junior center helped lead Canada to its best finish at the World University Games and its first medal since 1991.
The game’s deciding sequence came at the start of the fourth quarter as the USA used an 18-6 run to turn a tenuous 48-45 lead into a comfortable 66-51 advantage. The game had featured four ties and four lead changes up to that point.
Both squads won their first five games to set up Monday’s championship tilt.
This was Hempen’s first time representing the United States. She earned All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention recognition in 2014-15 for a season in which she started every game and led the team in scoring (12.0 ppg), 3-pointers (76 - third in Pac-12), was second in assists (2.4 apg), free throw percentage (77.8) and free throws made (84) and attempted (108). After only two seasons in a Sun Devil uniform Hempen, who last year set the school single-season record for 3-pointers (76), is on pace to become the program’s career leader in 3-pointers next season (currently has 120 and record is 162). Hempen scored in double figures 23 times last season, including a career-high 23 points in ASU’s win over Ohio in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Last season she knocked down three or more 3-pointers 14 times, including a career-best six triples against Oregon State (Jan. 25). In addition, she connected on a school NCAA Tournament single-game record five triples in the aforementioned win over Ohio (Mar. 21). Hempen, who also dished out five or more assists four times, including a career-high eight at UCLA, will enter the 2015-16 seasons needing 17 more points to reach 1,000 at ASU.
Prior to this summer Dornstauder competed for the Canadian Junior National Team at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship in Lithuania and also at the 2012 U17 World Championships in Amsterdam. She played in every one of ASU’s games last season and recorded four starts. She was ASU’s leader off the bench in both scoring (7.2 ppg - 5th on the team) and rebounding (4.9 rpg - 3rd on the team) and led the team in blocks (0.9 bpg). She scored in double figures 11 times and grabbed six or more rebounds 16 times. Her signature performance of the season came in ASU’s 53-52 win over Stanford (Feb. 6 in Tempe) in which she scored a career-high 22 points (9-13 FGs). Dornstauder was also one of ASU’s top performers in the Pac-12 Tournament where she averaged 12.5 points and 6.0 rebounds and connected on all 11 of her free throw attempts.
Hempen and Dornstauder are two of three Sun Devils participating in international competitions this summer. On Thursday junior Sophie Brunner will be competing for the U.S. Pan American Games team when it begins competition vs. Brazil at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.