The Sun Devil women's basketball team concluded the basketball portion of its Costa Rica foreign tour with a 4-0 record. After defeating Ottawa in its first two games (Sunday and Monday), the Sun Devils went on to record wins over local team Coronado on Tuesday and the University of Costa Rica on Wednesday.
Below are head coach Charli Turner Thorne's thoughts following each game.
Game 3 vs. Coronado – Game Highlights
"I thought we did better. It was great that we got to play against zone because the first two games we did not see one possession of it. For us, in terms of getting better, that was great. It was basically 40 minutes of zone. In the second half we said we are not going to shoot in transition but rather we are going to work the ball and get into our offense. I really thought we got better, going hard, setting up the cuts and screening.
"It does not matter who we play and that's what we talked about before the game. I told them I don't care about the score. Win or lose we don't care about the score. We just need to get better.
"I thought defensively we worked really hard. Our posts were challenged because they had to work on the perimeter the entire game, which was great for them because they are going to have to do that during the season. We got a little more execution in.
Today was a bit of a toughness test for us considering everything we did leading up to this game. We got up early spent over four hours on a bus, were on a river for two hours and then went to play a game. The challenge for us was to be able to come out and play at the same level we always want to play at. Are we going to do that when we have had a long, crazy day? I thought we played really hard under challenging circumstances with having the long day that we had."
Game 4 vs. University of Costa Rica – Game Highlights
"I'm really proud of our team because of how locked in we were considering this was our fourth game in four days. After the first quarter we pulled the ball out most of the game, ran offense, made the extra pass and we executed. We said, 'let's make sure that we get better.' We are not going to get better doing layup drills.
"It has been ideal the way things have worked out for us. For such a young team to play in the game where the other team is changing defenses and we are just having to kind of work through things is fantastic. Not doubt we are definitely not peaking yet. There is a lot to work on, but this has been an amazing opportunity for our program in in this particular year given that we have six new players.
"Before the game I told the team that there are at least a couple games every season where maybe there is no energy in the building or maybe you know you should beat this team pretty handily. There are just games where you are not as fired up to play that game and you think you can show up and win and you sort of make that mistake. I told them that great teams and great players don't do that. They bring their best no matter. It's never about the opponent, it's always about them and their excellence and that's what we needed to do today and that's the way we approached this whole trip is we need to get better and we need to hold ourselves to our standards.
"Obviously we are not in game shape. Coming here we just tried to teach and learn. It could not have gone better in terms of everything we wanted to get out of this trip. To be able to get everyone even minutes and opportunities is really great. That's why everything about this trip has been perfect."
Below are head coach Charli Turner Thorne's thoughts following each game.
Game 3 vs. Coronado – Game Highlights
"I thought we did better. It was great that we got to play against zone because the first two games we did not see one possession of it. For us, in terms of getting better, that was great. It was basically 40 minutes of zone. In the second half we said we are not going to shoot in transition but rather we are going to work the ball and get into our offense. I really thought we got better, going hard, setting up the cuts and screening.
"It does not matter who we play and that's what we talked about before the game. I told them I don't care about the score. Win or lose we don't care about the score. We just need to get better.
We're locked in after a big win against Coronado! #ForksUp pic.twitter.com/ZklTjjaXhZ
— Sun Devil WBB (@SunDevilWBB) August 10, 2016
"I thought defensively we worked really hard. Our posts were challenged because they had to work on the perimeter the entire game, which was great for them because they are going to have to do that during the season. We got a little more execution in.
Today was a bit of a toughness test for us considering everything we did leading up to this game. We got up early spent over four hours on a bus, were on a river for two hours and then went to play a game. The challenge for us was to be able to come out and play at the same level we always want to play at. Are we going to do that when we have had a long, crazy day? I thought we played really hard under challenging circumstances with having the long day that we had."
Game 4 vs. University of Costa Rica – Game Highlights
"I'm really proud of our team because of how locked in we were considering this was our fourth game in four days. After the first quarter we pulled the ball out most of the game, ran offense, made the extra pass and we executed. We said, 'let's make sure that we get better.' We are not going to get better doing layup drills.
"It has been ideal the way things have worked out for us. For such a young team to play in the game where the other team is changing defenses and we are just having to kind of work through things is fantastic. Not doubt we are definitely not peaking yet. There is a lot to work on, but this has been an amazing opportunity for our program in in this particular year given that we have six new players.
Finale in Costa Rica. 4-0! Bring on the beach! #PuraVida pic.twitter.com/cdeYYAqXgC
— Charli Turner Thorne (@ASUCoachCharli) August 10, 2016
"Before the game I told the team that there are at least a couple games every season where maybe there is no energy in the building or maybe you know you should beat this team pretty handily. There are just games where you are not as fired up to play that game and you think you can show up and win and you sort of make that mistake. I told them that great teams and great players don't do that. They bring their best no matter. It's never about the opponent, it's always about them and their excellence and that's what we needed to do today and that's the way we approached this whole trip is we need to get better and we need to hold ourselves to our standards.
"Obviously we are not in game shape. Coming here we just tried to teach and learn. It could not have gone better in terms of everything we wanted to get out of this trip. To be able to get everyone even minutes and opportunities is really great. That's why everything about this trip has been perfect."