By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Senior guard Elisha Davis and the Sun Devils women's basketball team learned a valuable lesson last season after a bitter, one-point defeat to Florida State in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet Sixteen.
"It's not always how you start," Davis said. "It's how you finish."
ASU has an excellent chance at redemption after the NCAA Tournament selection committee awarded the Sun Devils the No. 2 seed in the Sioux Falls Regional. ASU (25-6) will host will host No. 15 seed New Mexico State (26-4), the WAC champ, on Friday at 4:30 p.m. in Tempe.
The No. 2 seed is the highest seed the program has ever achieved in the NCAA Tournament, but the Sun Devils weren't expecting such respect after dropping their final two games of the season, including a first-round loss to Cal in the Pac-12 Tournament in Seattle.
When Ohio State was announced as the No. 3 seed in the Sioux Falls Region, most of the Sun Devils players figured they were headed to the Bridgeport Region with top-seeded, three-time defending champion Connecticut.
"Great surprise," junior forward Sophie Brunner said. "To see that we got a two-seed is just good knowing that all of our hard work has really paid off.”
ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said earlier this season that the Sun Devils' tough non-conference schedule would pay dividends in terms of preparation for the conference schedule and the postseason, but that challenging slate and a tough Pac-12 clearly meant something to the selection committee, even if Turner Thorne felt her team was gassed at the end of the season by road trips on three of the season's four final weekends.
"We had the No. 1 RPI conference in the nation and we shared the Pac-12 championship (with Oregon State) and we went 16-2 (in conference)," Turner Thorne said. "I absolutely think it was our schedule. Even some of our losses were close games against top teams."
ASU lost to South Carolina by two points early in the season and also fell to Kentucky, a No. 3 NCAA seed, in overtime. South Carolina (31-1) earned the No. 1 seed in the Sioux Falls Region while Ohio State is the No. 3 seed and Syracuse is No. 4. The Sun Devils won at Syracuse earlier this season and own wins over six tournament teams: Syracuse, Hawaii, Florida State, Stanford (twice), Washington (twice) and UCLA.
ASU has advanced to two Elite Eights (both under Turner Thorne) and six Sweet Sixteens (four under Turner Thorne) in its history, including last season when the Devils lost to Florida State, 66-65, in the Sweet 16 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
That loss in particular stuck with Davis and is fueling this entire team that Turner Thorne called "three years in the making."
The Sun Devils seeding offers opportunity for redemption, given their success against Syracuse and the fact that they lost to South Carolina by a basket despite a rash of injuries in that game. They lost Brunner to a severe ankle sprain, they lost starting small forward Kelsey Moos to a concussion and center Quinn Dornstauder missed a good chunk of the first half to get four stitches in her chin after a blow to the head from a South Carolina player.
Despite those facts, Davis said the Sun Devils can't let the national respect they are receiving and their climb in the polls go to their heads.
"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."
Turner Thorne echoed those sentiments while calling for her team to re-establish its identity.
"March is about toughness," she said. "Being really connected is really huge for us because we are so much about team basketball. You guys know we don't have any 20-to-25 (point) scorers per game. It's a collective effort."