CLICK HERE FOR TRAFFIC AND ROAD CLOSURE INFO FOR SUNDAY’S GAME
WHAT: #KeepTheBeat Heart Health Awareness game featuring No. 15 Sun Devil WBB vs. No. 18/17 Kentucky. Sunday’s pre-game festivities include a blood drive being put on by United Blood Services; Taste of Tempe, a free food tasting event in which several Valley restaurants will be offering free samples of Heart Healthy food; and a Heart Heath Expo.
WHEN/WHERE: Game time for ASU-Kentucky is 3:30 pm MT at Wells Fargo Arena. The United Services blood drive will start at 11 am on the east side of the arena – Donors can register in advance at www.BloodHero.com (enter Sponsor Code: HeartASU); Taste of Tempe will take place from 1:30-2:30 pm in the Arboretum (NE side of the arena) and the Heart Health Expo will start at 2:30 pm on the concourse of the arena. Click here to purchase tickets to the game.
TELEVISON: Sunday’s game can be seen live on Pac-12 Networks (Krista Blunk and Mary Murphy).
RADIO: Sun Devil WBB’s radio partner on the Sun Devil Sports Radio Network, presented by MidFirst, is NBC Sports Radio AM 1060. Pre-game coverage of Sunday’s game will begin at 3 p.m.
UP NEXT
The No. 15 Arizona State women’s basketball team kicks off its 2015-16 campaign on Sunday (3:30 p.m. MT) when it hosts No. 18 Kentucky at Wells Fargo Arena.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
• The Sun Devils return nine players, including four starters – senior guards Katie Hempen and Elisha Davis and junior posts Sophie Brunner and Kelsey Moos – from last year’s team that finished with 29 wins (second-highest total in team history) and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Brunner (Pan American Games – silver medal) and Hempen (World University Games – gold medal) both earned medals in July while competing for USA Basketball. Also earning a medal was junior post Quinn Dornstauder (Canada), who brought back a silver medal from the World University Games.
• Last season... ASU made its 13th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament (its 10th under head coach Charli Turner Thorne) and earned a No. 3 seed in the Greensboro Regional (tied highest NCAA seed in school history)... ASU got off to its best start (18-1) and conference start (7-0) in school history. In addition, ASU reached 20 wins faster than any team in program history (22 games)... ASU’s 14-game winning streak (started on Nov. 30 and ended on Jan. 25) was its second longest in school history. Only the 2008-09 team won more games in succession (15)… Tied the 2006-07 squad for the best road record in school history (10-1)… ASU’s two wins over Stanford during the regular season represented the first time a conference school swept Stanford during the regular season since 1988... Finished among the nation’s Top 30 teams in 3-Point Field Goal Percentage Defense (4th/25.4), Scoring Defense (21st/55.9 ppg), 3-Point Field Goal Percentage (22nd/36.1), Field Goal Percentage (27th/44.0) and Scoring Margin (27th/+11.0... Set the school record for fewest turnovers per game (14.3). Eclipsed the previous record (16.4 by the 2011-12 team) by more than two turnovers per game... Gave up nearly 10 fewer points per game (9.8) in 2014-15 (55.9) compared to the 2013-14 team (65.7).
• The Sun Devils have been victorious in 15 of their last 17 season openers with the only blemishes during that span coming in a 75-60 setback at North Carolina in the 2007 State Farm Tip-Off Classic and a 61-49 decision at home against Texas Tech in 2013. Last season the Sun Devils opened with an 81-67 win against Middle Tennessee.
• This will be the first meeting between ASU and Kentucky.
• Senior guard Katie Hempen enters the 2015-16 season in sixth place on ASU’s all-time list for most career 3-pointers (120). She needs 42 more to become ASU’s career leader. Last season Hempen set the school's single-season school record for most 3-pointers (76).
• Junior forward Sophie Brunner returns as ASU’s active leader in rebounds (478) and steals (92) and No. 2 in scoring (667 points). Last season Brunner was named All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 Defensive Honorable Mention and was a member of the Pac-12 Tournament’s All-Tournament Team. Brunner started every game in 2014-15 and concluded the season as the team leader in rebounding (7.6 rpg - 8th in Pac-12), steals (1.8 spg - 9th in Pac-12), FG pct. (54.3 - 4th in Pac-12) and FTs made (87) & attempted (119), 2nd in scoring (11.9 ppg), 4th in FT pct. (73.1) and 5th in assists (1.2 apg). She was the only post player among the top 10 in the Pac-12 in steals (9th in all games - 1.8 spg and 3rd in conference games - 2.4 spg).
• Junior center Quinn Dornstauder played in every game in 2014-15 (5 starts) and was ASU’s leader off the bench in scoring (7.2 ppg - 5th on the team) and rebounds (4.9 rpg - 3rd on the team) and led the team in blocks (0.9 bpg). She started the last five games in February (the first five of her career) while Kelsey Moos was out with an elbow injury last season.
• Senior guard Elisha Davis has led team in assists each of the last two seasons. She started every game in 2014-15 and led the team in assists (4.5 apg - 3rd in Pac-12) and FT pct. (80.0), was 2nd in 3-pointers (38), 3rd in steals (1.1 spg), 4th in scoring (7.5 ppg) and 5th in free throws made (48) and attempted (60).
• Junior forward Kelsey Moos played in 31 games (30 starts) and concluded the 2014-15 season 2nd on the team in field goal percentage (52.9) and rebounds per game (5.4 rpg), 4th in 3-pointers (12) and tied for 4th in steals (0.8 spg). She missed four games in February because of an elbow injury that would affect her the remainder of the season.
• Senior forward Eliza Normen, who redshirted due to injury as a freshman in 2011-12, returns for her fifth year. A veteran of 102 games, Normen played in every game in 2014-15 and concluded the season 5th on the team in rebounding (2.8 rpg) and 2nd in blocks (0.4 bpg). She set the program record for most blocks in an NCAA Tournament game with 5 in ASU's NCAA First Round win over Ohio (Mar. 21, 2015).
• For the second consecutive season the Sun Devils' roster will include two players who are sisters. Last season it was Peace and Promise Amukamara. This year it will be Arnecia (senior guard) and younger sister Armani (freshman guard) Hawkins. Promise, who was twice named to the Pac-12's All-Defensive Team and earned All-Pac-12 honors in 2015, played in every single one of ASU’s 131 games over the last four seasons, recording starts in 97 of those contests. Peace, who transferred to ASU from Mesa Community College in 2014, returns for her senior season. Prace played in every game and finished 3rd on the team in assists (2.1 apg). Arnecia played in every game last season and led the team in 3-point FG pct. (41.5) and finished 3rd in 3-pointers (17). Her shooting percentage of 42.9 was nearly 12 percentage points higher than career FG percentage (31.1) coming into the season.
• Sophomore guard Tia Kanoa returns after having her freshman season cut short by a knee injury.
• Armani Hawkins and fellow freshman guard Sabrina Haines will be reunited as teammates at ASU. The two played together in high school freshman and sophomore year at Mesa Mountain View before Haines transferred to Desert Vista in Phoenix her final two years. Haines averaged 15.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.3 steals years her senior season while Hawkins averaged 22.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks. Both Haines and Hawkins were named to The Arizona Republic’s All-Arizona girls basketball team.
• Freshman post Charnea Johnson-Chapman earned first-team All-CIF honors for Canyon Springs (Moreno Valley, Calif.) as a senior after averaging 16.9 points while connecting on 55 percent of her field goal attempts.
• Freshman post Kianna Ibis earned All-State honors three times while playing for Benson High School in Omaha, Neb. Her senior season was cut short after 17 games due to an ACL injury. At the time of the injury, Ibis had been averaging 21.2 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.7 blocks.
• Fifteen Sun Devil women’s basketball games will be televised by Pac-12 Networks during the 2015-16 season, according to an announcement by Pac-12 Networks on Monday. In addition to the 15 games it will have televised across all seven networks, ASU will also have appearances on ESPN2 (at Oregon State on Feb. 1 as part of ESPN2’s Big Monday women’s basketball series) and ESPN U (home game vs. Florida State on Mon., Dec. 21 in a rematch of last year’s NCAA Sweet 16), bringing its total to 17 television appearances this season.
• Sun Devil WBB head coach Charli Turner Thorne, who will be entering her 19th season at ASU, needs six more wins to reach 400 for her career. Turner Thorne has 354 at ASU and 40 at NAU where she started her head coaching career.
SUN DEVIL WBB EARNS NO. 7 RANKING IN WBCA ACADEMIC TOP 25
The Arizona State University women’s basketball team was among the top 10 women’s basketball programs in the classroom in 2014-15 as the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced its 2015 Academic Team Honor Rolls presented by AT&T on Tuesday.
The Sun Devil women’s basketball team’s combined team GPA of 3.558 was No. 7 among NCAA Division I institutions. ASU was one of only seven schools among the WBCA’s Top 25 that also participated in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. On the court, the Sun Devils recorded the best finish of schools appearing in the WBCA’s Top 25 after advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Since the 1996-97 season (Charli Turner Thorne’s first season at ASU) ASU leads the Pac-12 in the number of first-team All-Academic conference awards (17) and the combined number of first- and second-team All-Academic conference awards (37)
SUN DEVIL WBB IS 'KEEPING THE BEAT' FOR HEART HEALTH AWARENESS
On August 7, 2015, the Sun Devil women’s basketball program today announced the launch of ‘Keep The Beat,’ an awareness campaign designed to help people of all ages have a better understanding of what it means to live a heart-healthy lifestyle.
The Sun Devil women’s basketball program is partnering with several organizations including the American Heart Association and the Arizona chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses in an effort to educate the Valley population about prevention of cardiovascular disease, which according to the American Heart Association accounts for 17.3 million deaths per year – and is expected to grow to more than 23.6 million by 2030.
The campaign will culminate with the Sun Devil women’s basketball team’s 2015-16 season opener against the University of Kentucky on Sunday, November 15 at Wells Fargo Arena. The game’s theme will be focused on elements of the Keep the Beat program as fans will be able to get important information and participate in screenings that will help them become more aware of what they can do to #keepthebeat.
“One of the hallmarks of our program has been to use our platform to champion for other causes,” said ASU head women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne. “Cardiovascular disease is the leading global cause of death. From a personal standpoint I have become all too familiar with heart ailments over the years as loved ones – both in and outside of my family – have had their lives affected by this. We feel an obligation to reach out to the community any way that we can. What better way to do this than helping all those in our community look out for that single thing that is most important to all of us and our loved ones – our health.”
CHALLENGING NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AWAITS 2015-16 SUN DEVILS
The Arizona State University women’s basketball team will pick up right where it left off last March – competing against the nation’s best teams – when the 2015-16 season commences in November. Five schools that qualified for last year’s NCAA Tournament and a sixth that advanced to the second round of the WNIT comprise half of the Sun Devils’ 2015-16 non-conference schedule.
“Our program has set a standard over the years of playing a challenging non-conference schedule that not only gets us prepared for Pac-12 play, but also gives our fans the opportunity to see the kind of top-level, non-conference matchups that often occur in the month of March,” said Turner Thorne, who will be entering her 19th season. “In one year we have gone from a being young team to a veteran squad that features great experience and a lot of core returners and so I think this will be the perfect schedule for them.”
The Sun Devils have gone a combined 22-2 in regular season, non-conference games the last two seasons.
Here are highlights and notes about Sun Devils’ non-conference slate…
• ASU will open its 2015-16 season on Sun., Nov. 15 when it hosts the University of Kentucky at Wells Fargo Arena. The Wildcats have qualified for the NCAA Tournament each of the last six seasons and have recorded a trio of Elite Eight appearances during that stretch. The game will represent the first ever meeting between ASU and Kentucky.
• The Sun Devils will be spending Thanksgiving weekend in Hawaii, where they will be playing three games. ASU will open the tournament against 2015 Final Four participant South Carolina. The Gamecocks went 34-3 last season. The last of their three losses came against Notre Dame in the NCAA National semifinals. The Sun Devils came one win short of meeting South Carolina last season. A victory over Florida State in the Sweet 16 would have propelled ASU into an Elite Eight matchup against the Gamecocks in the Greensboro Regional final.
• Speaking of Florida State, the Sun Devils and Seminoles will have a rematch of last season’s Sweet 16 game when they meet in Tempe on Mon., Dec. 21. The contest between the two teams last March, won by Florida State 66-65, provided fans with one of the NCAA Tournament’s most exciting games as the Sun Devils nearly overcame a six-point deficit in the final two minutes. The Seminoles would finish the season 32-5 after coming up short against South Carolina in the ensuing Elite Eight contest. ASU’s contest against Florida State will be preceded by a home game vs. Marquette on Sat., Dec. 19.
• The Sun Devils will have a two-game East Coast swing that will start on Dec. 12 when they take on the Syracuse. This will be the second time in three seasons that the Sun Devils and Orange will battle on the hardwood. In 2013 the Sun Devils came away with a 63-60 win at home in a game that was not decided until the final seconds. Syracuse made its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance last season where it advanced to the second round and finished with a record of 22-10. The Sun Devils will conclude the road trip on Dec. 14 at Hartford.
• ASU will close out the non-conference portion of its schedule when it hosts CSUN on Mon., Dec. 28. The Matadors finished 23-10 last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year.
• The annual Sun Devil Classic will be played Dec. 5-6 and will feature VCU, Columbia and Toledo (advanced to the second round of the 2015 WNIT). ASU will play Columbia in the first round.
• In addition to the aforementioned trips to Hawaii and Syracuse/Hartford, the Sun Devils will also be on the road for the second game of the season when they travel to Dallas to take on SMU (Nov. 21). Last season the Sun Devils defeated the Mustangs 77-42 in Tempe.
• ASU will be on the road for four of its five games in November, however will be home for five of its seven games in December, including its last three before Pac-12 play begins.