WHAT: No. 18 Sun Devil WBB at SMU.
WHEN: Saturday at 1 p.m. CT/Noon MT.
WHERE: Moody Coliseum, Dallas Texas.
LIVE STREAM: Saturday’s game will be streamed on SMU's PonyUp TV. Users must pay a subscription fee in order to watch the game. Click here for more information.
RADIO: Sun Devil WBB’s radio partner on the Sun Devil Sports Radio Network, presented by MidFirst, is NBC Sports Radio AM 1060. Coverage of Saturday’s game will begin at noon MT.
UP NEXT
The No. 18 Arizona State women’s basketball team (0-1) will look to even its record when it travels to Dallas, Texas, to face SMU on Saturday (1 p.m. CT/noon MT). The Sun Devils, who dropped their opener 68-64 (OT) to current No. 13 Kentucky last week, will be playing their next four games away from home. After Saturday’s game, ASU will prepare for a trip to Hawaii next week where it will face second-ranked South Carolina, Hawaii and CSU Bakersfield in the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Showdown.
RADIO/LIVE STREAM
Saturday’s game can be heard on Sun Devil WBB’s radio partner on the Sun Devil Sports Radio Network, presented by MidFirst, NBC Sports Radio AM 1060. Veteran broadcaster and the state of Arizona’s 2010 Broadcaster of the Year Jeff Munn is in his 12th season as the voice of ASU women’s basketball.
The game will be streamed on SMU's PonyUp TV. Users must pay a subscription fee in order to watch the game. Click here for more information.
NOTES FROM LAST GAME
• ASU dropped its season opener to Kentucky, 68-64 in overtime on Sunday • ASU led by as many as 12 early in the third quarter and was up by six with under two minutes remaining, but the Wildcats would score 8 of the last 10 points in regulation to force overtime • In the extra session, the Devils would lead by as many as four points on two occasions, the last coming when Quinn Dornstauder’s jumper put ASU up 64-60 with 2:27 left. The Wildcats would counter by scoring the next eight points to come away with the win • Junior forward Sophie Brunner led the way with 19 points,7 rebounds and 4 assists. Brunner, who was 0-4 in her career from beyond the act coming into the game, drained all three of her 3-pointers vs. Kentucky • Two of ASU’s freshmen – Sabrina Haines and Charnea Johnson-Chapman – both made their Sun Devil debut on Sunday • The Wildcats were able to score 19 points off of ASU’s 20 turnovers while the Sun Devils scored 11 on Kentucky’s 18 turnovers. Last season the Sun Devils set the school record for fewest turnovers per game (14.3).
SERIES HISTORY
ASU and SMU have split their prior two meetings. SMU was victorious in the first meeting in 1997 in Dallas, 74-59. Last December the Sun Devils came out on top, 77-42 in Tempe. Katie Hempn led the way in last year’s win with 15 points while Kelsey Moos, Elisha Davis and Peace Amukamara chipped in 11 points each. The 11 points represented a career high for Amukamara.
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.
• ASU’s loss to Kentucky on Sunday was only its third non-conference loss since the 2012-13 season.
• The Sun Devils are a combined 22-3 in non-conference games the last three seasons.
• 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).
• Senior guard Katie Hempen needs 6 more points to reach 1,000 career points. Hempen scored 290 points as freshman at SIUE and has recorded 704 points as a Sun Devil. Hempen is also in sixth place on ASU’s all-time list for most career 3-pointers (121). She needs 41 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 (485) and steals (93) and No. 2 in scoring (686 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 103 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. Peace 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 forward 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. 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 is in 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.
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 22-3 in regular season, non-conference games since the start of the 2013-14 season.
Here are highlights and notes about Sun Devils’ non-conference slate…
• ASU opened its 2015-16 season against Kentucky and dropped a 68-64 decision in overtime. 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 was the first ever meeting between the two teams..
• 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.
CHARLI TURNER THORNE HAS SUN DEVIL WBB AMONG NATION’S ELITE
Arizona State head women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year in 2015 for a season in which she led the Sun Devils to their best start in school history (18-1), their best conference start in school history (7-0), a second-place finish in the Pac-12 and 29 wins, the second-highest number of wins in school history.
The all-time winningest coach in program history and No. 2 in the Pac-12 in career wins (354), Charli Turner Thorne has turned Sun Devil women’s basketball into one of the nation’s premiere programs since taking over in 1996-97. Included in ASU’s earlier run of 13 consecutive postseason appearances (2000-12) were a school record five-consecutive NCAA Tournament bids from 2005-09. During that time the Sun Devils qualified for the Elite Eight on a pair of occasions, making ASU one of only 15 programs in the country to have qualified for the Elite Eight at least two times between 2007-12.
In 2013-14, Turner Thorne helped the Sun Devils post one of the best turnarounds in the country as they went from a 13-18 record and a ninth-place Pac-12 finish (5-13) the previous season to a 23-10 record and fourth-place Pac-12 finish (11-7). Included among ASU’s 23 wins in 2013-14 were three triumphs over Top 25 teams.
On Jan. 25, 2013, Turner Thorne became the third Pac-12 coach to reach 300 victories following ASU’s 60-53 win over USC, a game in which ASU came back from 16 down in the second half.
A closer look at Turner Thorne’s path to 300 puts into perspective the incredible 180-degree turnaround Sun Devil women’s basketball has undergone since she came to ASU. To reach 150 wins it took Turner Thorne 272 games (150-122 - .551) as she rebuilt a program that had an aggregate record of 20-60 in the three years prior to her arrival and only two NCAA Tournament wins in its history. It would take her 215 games to get 150 more wins. Since picking up her 150th win at ASU, Turner Thorne is 204-92 (.689).
Last season, Turner Thorne led the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in her ASU tenure.
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 according to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) 2015 Academic Team Honor Rolls, announced this past July.
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 SIGNS TOP 10 CLASS FOR NEXT SEASON
Arizona State University head women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne announced the signing of five student-athletes – Sydney Goodson, Reili Richardson, Jamie Ruden, Kiara Russell and Robbi Ryan – on Nov. 11 whose outstanding ability, talent and potential for immediate impact have the signing class ranked among the top 10 in the country by espnW HoopGurlz.
Goodson, a 5-8 guard, will be joining the Sun Devils from Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas, where she has already led her team to a pair of TAPPS Class 5A state title game appearances. After a runner-up finish in 2013, the Lady Warriors came away with the title in 2015 as Goodson averaged 12.5 points, 3.4 assists and 2.5 steals on her way to earning First-Team All-State honors and being named the District’s Offensive Player of the Year.
Richardson will be coming to ASU from Brea Olinda High School in Brea, California. The 5-9 guard averaged 17.4 points as a junior while earning numerous awards, including MaxPreps 2014-15 California All-State Division 3 Second-Team recognition, Southern Section All-Open Division Team and Orange County Register All-County First-Team honors.
A 6-1 post, who has incredible versatility, Ruden has averaged 20 or more points each of the last three seasons for John Marshall High School (Rochester, Minnesota). Ruden is coming off a junior campaign in which she earned AP First-Team All-State and Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association Class 4A All-State recognition after averaging 23 points, eight rebounds and two assists per game in leading John Marshall to a 27-2 record and a state runner-up finish.
Also coming to ASU from the North Star State is Russell, a 5-8 guard out of Osseo High School in Osseo, Minnesota. Like Ruden, Russell also earned 2015 Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association Class 4A All-State honors after a spectacular junior campaign in which she averaged 23.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 3.8 steals.
A 5-9 guard, Ryan enters the 2015-16 season as the reigning Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Wyoming, where she has enjoyed a prolific career at Sheridan High School (Sheridan, Wyoming). Named to the All-State team in each of her first three seasons, Ryan has twice been invited to the U17 Olympic trials for women’s basketball and has also competed in the Chicago Nike National Invitation Tournament.