TEMPE, Ariz. – Kianna Ibis' third 20-point game of the season and a last-second defensive stand helped the No. 19 Arizona State women's basketball team to a 62-61 win over No. 24 Cal on Sunday.
One week after scoring 27 points in ASU's win at Colorado, Ibis poured in 26 points against the Bears. The senior all-Pac-12 performer connected on 75 percent of her FGs (9-12), including a career-high four 3-pointers, and hit all four of her free throw attempts to go with six rebounds, two steals and one block.
Robbi Ryan added seven points and Sophia Elenga, Reili Richardson and Charnea Johnson-Chapman accounted for six points each for the Sun Devils (12-4, 3-2 Pac-12), who posted their seventh straight regular season win over Cal.
Sunday's contest was a back-and-forth battle that featured 13 ties and 18 lead changes with neither team leading by more than six points. That six-point advantage, in favor of the Sun Devils, occurred 11 seconds into the final quarter after Ibis' layup put the Sun Devils up 54-48.
Cal (10-5, 1-3) responded with a 7-1 run to tie the game at 55-55 after Kristine Anigwe's layup with 7:16 remaining.
Courtney Ekmark put the Sun Devils back in front after her team-leading 36thtriple of the season, but Anigwe, who led Cal with 21 points, came back to score the game's next four points to put the Bears back up 59-58.
After Ibis tied the game at 61-61 with two free throws with 57 seconds remaining, the Sun Devil defense did not allow Cal to even get a shot off on the ensuing possession forcing the Bears give up the ball on a shot clock violation.
With the final seconds ticking down Richardson was fouled while driving to the basket. The junior point guard, who hit a buzzer-beater to beat then-unbeaten Utah on Jan. 4, hit one of two free throws to give put ASU up 62-61.
The Sun Devils would need one more stop to preserve the win as Cal still had 4.6 seconds to work with after advancing the ball with a timeout. Cal went to Anigwe, who caught the inbounds pass right at the basket, but the 6-4 center was denied by Richardson who came over the top as Anigwe was going up to try and win the game. Cal's Asha Thomas collected the loose ball and missed as time expired giving ASU its second down-to-the-last-second win in as many weeks.
Sunday's game was the second of four straight for the Sun Devils against ranked opponents. They started the weekend with a 72-65 setback to current No. 6 Stanford. Next week the Sun Devils will be on the road for games at No. 5 Oregon (Friday at 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT) and at No. 10 Oregon State (Sunday at 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT). Both games can be seen on Pac-12 Network and heard on NBC Sports Radio AM 1060.
One week after scoring 27 points in ASU's win at Colorado, Ibis poured in 26 points against the Bears. The senior all-Pac-12 performer connected on 75 percent of her FGs (9-12), including a career-high four 3-pointers, and hit all four of her free throw attempts to go with six rebounds, two steals and one block.
.@Kianna_Ibis was clutch in tonight's win over No. 24 Cal ?? pic.twitter.com/1RMTvDuk1R
— Sun Devil WBB (@SunDevilWBB) January 14, 2019
Robbi Ryan added seven points and Sophia Elenga, Reili Richardson and Charnea Johnson-Chapman accounted for six points each for the Sun Devils (12-4, 3-2 Pac-12), who posted their seventh straight regular season win over Cal.
Sunday's contest was a back-and-forth battle that featured 13 ties and 18 lead changes with neither team leading by more than six points. That six-point advantage, in favor of the Sun Devils, occurred 11 seconds into the final quarter after Ibis' layup put the Sun Devils up 54-48.
Cal (10-5, 1-3) responded with a 7-1 run to tie the game at 55-55 after Kristine Anigwe's layup with 7:16 remaining.
Courtney Ekmark put the Sun Devils back in front after her team-leading 36thtriple of the season, but Anigwe, who led Cal with 21 points, came back to score the game's next four points to put the Bears back up 59-58.
After Ibis tied the game at 61-61 with two free throws with 57 seconds remaining, the Sun Devil defense did not allow Cal to even get a shot off on the ensuing possession forcing the Bears give up the ball on a shot clock violation.
With the final seconds ticking down Richardson was fouled while driving to the basket. The junior point guard, who hit a buzzer-beater to beat then-unbeaten Utah on Jan. 4, hit one of two free throws to give put ASU up 62-61.
The Sun Devils would need one more stop to preserve the win as Cal still had 4.6 seconds to work with after advancing the ball with a timeout. Cal went to Anigwe, who caught the inbounds pass right at the basket, but the 6-4 center was denied by Richardson who came over the top as Anigwe was going up to try and win the game. Cal's Asha Thomas collected the loose ball and missed as time expired giving ASU its second down-to-the-last-second win in as many weeks.
Sunday's game was the second of four straight for the Sun Devils against ranked opponents. They started the weekend with a 72-65 setback to current No. 6 Stanford. Next week the Sun Devils will be on the road for games at No. 5 Oregon (Friday at 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT) and at No. 10 Oregon State (Sunday at 2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT). Both games can be seen on Pac-12 Network and heard on NBC Sports Radio AM 1060.