By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Elisha Davis never considered herself a great ball-stopping defender, so when Sun Devil women's basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne asked her to be the tip of the spear for ASU's pressure defense this season, she was surprised.
"At first, I was afraid," she said. "I was like 'you want me to stop the ball and give my all on defense and then push the ball and run offense?' It sounded like a big job.
"But when I thought about it, why would you not give your all or not want to do that job? My team needs me to be a big part of this its energy and willingness to be tough. I can't tell somebody to be tough and suck it up if I can't do it myself, so the best way for me to show that is taking on one of the biggest jobs."
Turner Thorne calls Davis the catalyst for the Sun Devils' suffocating defense this season.
"We ask her to pick up the ball in the backcourt and keep that person in front of her for 50 feet," Turner Thorne said. "There's nothing harder."
On the occasions when Davis does get beat, however, the rest of the Devils have her back in what Turner Thorne calls ASU's "helper culture." Through 16 games, the 10th-ranked Sun Devils (13-3) are allowing an average of 52.4 points per game. If that continues, it would represent the best mark in the program's history, topping the 53.2 points per game the 2011-12 team allowed.
On average, opposing teams have scored 19.8 points less than their season scoring average when facing ASU, and only Marquette has scored more. Twelve of ASU's 16 opponents have shot less than 30 percent from 3-point range, ASU has held opponents to a single-digit points in a quarter 19 times this season and 25 or fewer points in a half 15 times.
Among the Devils' most impressive outings were:
- Holding second-ranked South Carolina 18.8 points below its scoring average in a 60-58 loss on Nov. 27.
- Setting a school record for fewest points allowed in a half (six) at Hartford in a 60-29 win on Dec. 14.
- Holding Florida State 21.7 points below its season average in a 68-56 win on Dec. 21.
- Holding Cal, which had scored more than 100 points in three of its previous four games, 33.2 points below its average in a 57-49 win on Jan. 2.
- Holding Stanford to its fewest points in school history (31) in a 49-31 win on Jan. 4.
"When you play in one of the top conferences in the country and are faced with a team that can score from all five positions, it's kind of a 'duh' realization that you have to be able to guard them," said Turner Thorne, whose club has forced 18 or more turnovers nine times and 20 or more turnovers seven times.
"As much as we are holding teams and statistically doing a good job, we come back after every game and watch all these correctables on defense and think, 'we can be so much better!'"
Turner Thorne's teams have always been defined by their brand of defense; a style she learned as graduate assistant under then-Washington coach Chris Gobrecht (now at Air Force). While Turner Thorne harps on that part of the game, she thinks those who define the Devils solely through that lens are missing the greater point.
"I do think it is a cornerstone of our program because our style is unique. Not many teams pressure like we do," she said. "Outworking teams and playing hard is our personality because defense is something you can always control while you’re not always going to hit your shots, but we want to score, we want to transition and we want to play aggressively on both ends of the floor.
"People always say 'you like defense,' but what I really like is winning."
The Sun Devils knew they had to make up for the graduation of Promise Amukamara, a great on-ball defender who regularly neutralized opponents' top player. When forwards Kelsey Moos and Sophie Brunner both went down with injuries earlier this season and the Devils lost a home game to Virginia Commonwealth, however, that's when Turner Thorne said they had their "come to Jesus" moment.
"Charli always says if one of us is beat we're all beat so we take that to heart and we take pride in our defense, knowing that we have play with a chip on our shoulder, Brunner said. "We're all blue-collar players. None of us were big, flashy recruits coming in so we've all known from Day 1 in our careers that we have to outwork people to be better."
It's hard to argue with the results. The Devils have won 10 straight games, which is five short of the school record set in 2008-09 when they advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight. Despite that accomplishment and the fact that ASU sits atop the Pac-12 standings at 4-0 in conference play, Davis said it’s way too early to get excited.
"We were in this position last year and we dropped the ball at the end of the season, dropped the ball in the Pac-12 Tournament and dropped the ball in the NCAAs so we realize we need to learn from that," she said. "There's a time and place to celebrate but now is not that time."