WHEN: Sunday at 2 p.m. MT
WHERE: CU Events Center • Boulder, Colo.
TELEVISION: Pac-12 Arizona/Mountain
RADIO: NBC Sports Radio AM 1060/TuneIn
LIVE STATS: http://statb.us/v/asu/233970
UP NEXT
Coming off a dramatic, come-from-behind win at Utah on Friday, the No. 22 Arizona State women's basketball team (10-3, 1-1 Pac-12) will attempt to go over the .500 mark in Pac-12 play on Sunday (2 p.m. MT) when it concludes its three-game road swing at Colorado (10-3, 0-2 Pac-12).
Sunday's game will conclude a stretch in which ASU will have played five of six on the road with its win over Fresno State on Dec. 20 being the only home game in that span. After Sunday's game the Sun Devils will return home to face No. 6 Stanford (Fri., Jan. 11) and No. 18 Cal (Sun., Jan. 13).
Colorado had winning streaks of four and six games during the non-conference portion of its schedule but has dropped its first two contests Pac-12 play, most recently 69-67 to Arizona on Friday night.
LAST GAME
Reili Richardson's buzzer-beater capped an 8-0 run by ASU in the final 80 seconds to help lead the Sun Devils to a come-from-behind, 65-63 win over previously unbeaten Utah on Friday night. Courtney Ekmark scored 15 points, Charnea Johnson-Chapman had 12 and Kianna Ibis added 11 to lead the Sun Devils, who trailed by as many as nine points in the third quarter. Johnson-Chapman just missed a double-double as she paced ASU with eight rebounds. Ekmark added four steals (one short of tying her career high) while Richardson distributed a game-high five assists giving the junior guard sole possession of 10th place on ASU's all-time assists list (now has 357). Iris Mbulito came in and provided the Sun Devils with a big spark off the bench as she scored five of her eight points and added an assist in the fourth quarter. Ibis came through with a clutch performance as the senior All-Pac-12 performer knocked down back-to-back triples to knot the score at 63-63.
COVERAGE
Sunday's game can be seen on Pac-12 Arizona/Mountain (Thad Anderson/Joan Bonvicini). It can also be heard on NBC Sports Radio AM 1060 and on the Sun Devil Sports Network's TuneIn Channel (pregame coverage will start at 1:30 p.m. MT). Veteran broadcaster and the state of Arizona's 2010 Broadcaster of the Year Jeff Munn is in his 15th season as the voice of ASU women's basketball.
RANKINGS/RPI
After occupying the No. 17 spot in the AP poll for four straight weeks, ASU dropped five spots to No. 22 in the most recent rankings. ASU is also No. 22 in the USA TODAY Sports Top 25 women's basketball coaches' poll. The Sun Devils were ranked 23rd in the preseason AP poll, one of five Pac-12 teams – No. 3 Oregon, No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 24 Cal – that were ranked, marking the third-straight year the conference has had five teams in the preseason poll... Coming off its win against previously unbeaten Utah, the Sun Devils moved into the No. 13 spot in the NCAA RPI (Jan. 5).
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
• ASU is currently ranked among the nation's top 25 in... scoring defense (11th/52.9 ppg), assist-to-turnover ratio (15th/1.98), rebounding margin (16th/+10.0) and fewest turnovers per game (23rd/13.2).
• ASU's recent seven-game winning streak represented the 24th time since 2004 that it has had a winning streak of five or more games. The string of wins was the program's longest since it tied the school record with 15 straight in 2015-16. During the winning streak ASU... Outscored the opposition by an average of 25.9 points (72.0-46.1)... Shot 47.0 percent, including 38.1 percent from long range... Averaged 18.9 assists and only 12.4 turnovers... Allowed its opponents to shoot only 34.3 percent... Was +14.4 on the boards... Guards Reili Richardson (36 assists/seven turnovers) and Kiara Russell (21 assists/seven turnovers) combined for 57 assists and only 14 turnovers during the winning streak. The duo combined to shoot 57 percent (24-42) during the same stretch. Richardson is No. 6 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.
• ASU has held the opposition to 12 or fewer points in a quarter 23x this season (single digits 14x) and outrebounded the opposition in all but one game (vs. Baylor).
• Courtney Ekmark led ASU in scoring (13.0 ppg) and knocked down 42 percent (20-48) of her 3-pointers during ASU's recent seven-game winning streak. Ekmark made a season-high six triples at Colorado State (Dec. 9), one short of tying the single-game school record she already shares. She has hit three or more 3-pointers six times this season.
• Senior posts Sophia Elenga (34-60/56.7) and Charnea Johnson-Chapman (32-59/54.9) have combined to shoot 55.7 percent (66-119) from the floor.
• Kianna Ibis has scored in double figures in all but one game this season.
• ASU has knocked down nine or more 3-pointers six times this season, something it accomplished twice all last season.
• ASU's bench has more than doubled the opposition in points per game, 28.3-11.4.
• ASU is now 2-1 this season in games decided by five points or less. The Sun Devils prevailed in their first road game of the season at Arkansas 88-85 on Nov. 18. ASU came up short in its upset bid of current No. 3 Louisville as the Cardinals make a basket in the final seconds to escape with a 58-56 win at the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout in Las Vegas on Nov. 23. ASU overcame a six-point deficit with an 8-0 run in the final 80 seconds at Utah.
SERIES NOTES VERSUS COLORADO
The Sun Devils have won 10 of the last 12 meetings – including the last eight in a row – since the Buffaloes joined the Pac-12 in 2011-12. The Sun Devils dropped their first eight meetings to Colorado with the last of those losses coming in 1987. ASU won both meetings last season, coming out on top 72-47 in Boulder and 73-59 in Tempe. Sophia Elenga (17 points), Jamie Ruden (13 points) and Courtney Ekmark (11 points) combined for 41 points in the first meeting while Kianna Ibis (24 points) and Ekmark (16 points) were ASU's top scorers in the rematch.
NON-CONFERENCE SUMMARY
ASU concluded the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 9-2 record, the sixth straight season it has won nine or more games before the start of Pac-12 play. During that stretch ASU has won 84 percent of its regular-season, non-conference contests (58-11). ASU nearly upset top five teams on two different occasions in November. The Sun Devils had then-fourth-ranked Baylor on the ropes – ASU led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter, by 11 at the half and entered the final period with a four-point lead – on Nov. 11, but in the end the Bears were able to outlast the Sun Devils, 65-59. On Nov. 23 ASU once again found itself in position to knock off a top-five team, this time it was then-No. 5 Louisville. ASU led by as many as six in the fourth quarter. After shooting 45 pct (13-29) in the second/third quarters, ASU shot only 14 percent over the final 10 minutes. Louisville scored the winning basket with less than two seconds left to escape with the victory.
SETTING THE STAGE FOR 2018-19
The Sun Devils are coming off a campaign in which they tied the school records for consecutive NCAA appearances (five) and 20-win seasons (five). The team returns all of its core players from last season including 2018 All-Pac-12 standout and leading scorer Kianna Ibis and 2018 All-Pac-12 honorable mention/Pac-12 defensive honorable mention selection Robbi Ryan. Also returning are the team's 2017-18 leaders in 3-pointers (senior Courtney Ekmark), field goal percentage (senior Charnea Johnson-Chapman), assists (junior Reili Richardson) and steals (junior Kiara Russell). Head coach Charli Turner Thorne, who is in her 22nd season, also welcomed what is expected to be an impactful freshman class: Taya Hanson, Jamie Loera, Iris Mbulito, Jayde Van Hyfte.
DOMINANT DEVIL DEFENSE
• ASU has allowed an average of only 56.3 ppg since the start of the 2014-15 season (149 games). ASU has held the opposition to 50 or less points 49 times during that stretch. They are 48-1 in those contests. The only loss came at home to Cal (50-49) on Feb. 8, 2015. Over that same stretch, ASU has allowed the opposition to make only 28.6 percent of its attempts from long range.
• Against then-No. 5 Louisville on Nov. 23, ASU held the Cardinals 25 points below their scoring average and put the clamps on Louisville's leading scorer Asia Durr, who had 14 points on 5-18 shooting (27.7 percent). Durr came into the contest averaging 25.7 points and had made half of her shots (26-52).
• In the fourth quarter of its last two non-conference games (vs. Kansas State, vs. Fresno State) ASU allowed the opposition to shoot just 18.5 percent (5-27) as the Sun Devils took single-digit leads into the fourth quarter of both games.
• ASU concluded the 2017-18 regular season first in the Pac-12 in scoring defense. It limited the opposition to 12 or fewer points in a quarter 51x last season, including a season low of two points scored by Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals (Mar. 1). On Feb. 23, 2018, ASU held eventual Elite Eight participant Oregon to 57 points – nearly 27 points below its scoring average at the time and its lowest point total of the season. In its 57-51 win over Oregon State (Mar. 2) in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Pac-12 Tournament the Sun Devils limited the Beavers to seven points in the first quarter and five in the final quarter, including a single point in the last five minutes. During that stretch ASU outscored the Beavers 13-1 to overcome a six-point deficit.
BALANCED OFFENSE
ASU has eight returning players who led or tied for the team lead in scoring last season. Kianna Ibis led the way 12x, followed by Robbi Ryan (9x), Courtney Ekmark (7x), Jamie Ruden (2x), Charnea Johnson-Chapman (2x), Sophia Elenga (2x), Reili Richardson (1x) and Kiara Russell (1x). ASU has already had five players lead or tie for the team lead in scoring this season: Ibis (5x), Ekmark (5x - 4x in last 6 games), Elenga (2x), Ruden (1x), and Richardson (1x).