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WBB comes away with hard-fought win at Santa Clara

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WBB comes away with hard-fought win at Santa ClaraWBB comes away with hard-fought win at Santa Clara
Brittany Graham

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Sun Devil women’s basketball team came away with a tough road win against a feisty and determined Santa Clara squad that refused to stop fighting. The Sun Devils (4-0) led by as many 18 only to see the Broncos (3-2) come back and tie the game on two occasions. The bottom line: When the clock on the scoreboard was all zeros, it read ASU 82, Santa Clara 77.

With the win, the Sun Devils are 4-0 for eighth time since 2002-03, most recently in 2022-23.

Sun Devil Standouts

  • McKinna Brackens (career-high 23 points, 11 rebounds and career highs in free throws made/attempted – 9/12) and Gabby Elliott (20 points and career highs of 16 rebounds and five assists) combined for 43 points and 27 rebounds, while accounting for the team’s first double-doubles of the season.
  • After missing the last two games due to injury, Last-Tear Poa tied her career high in scoring with 14 points and five rebounds and tied Elliott for the team high in assists (five).
  • Marley Washenitz (11 points, six rebounds) joined Elliott as the only two Sun Devils who have scored in double figures in every game.
  • Heloisa Carrera had eight points and collected four rebounds.
  • Martina Fantini came off the bench with valuable contributions of six points, six rebounds and six assists.

How it happened

  • One of the biggest factors in ASU’s win was its tremendous effort on the boards, where it had more than twice as many rebounds as Santa Clara (59-29) and twice as many offensive rebounds (20-10) which led to a 20-8 advantage in second chance points.
  • The two teams split the game’s first 34 points before the Sun Devils ended the first quarter with a 9-2 run to take a 26-19 lead going into the second quarter.
  • After shooting 61 percent in the first quarter, the Sun Devils came back with a 57-percent effort in the second quarter. Defensively, ASU forced the Broncos into missing eight of their first nine shots. Brackens (nine points) and Elliott (six points) teamed up to score 15 of ASU’s 24 points in helping the Sun Devils go up by as many as 18 after Brackens’ 3-point play with 1:58 remaining in the half.
  • The Sun Devils took a 50-37 lead into the locker room. The 50 points ASU scored in the first half were the most they scored in a half since the 51 points they scored in the first half vs. Arkansas State on Nov. 8, 2024.
  • ASU’s shooting cooled off in the third quarter as it manged to make only 29 percent of its attempts (6-21). The Broncos chipped away at ASU’s lead in the early minutes of the third quarter before using a 9-0 run to suddenly get within three points, 54-51 .
  • ASU built its lead back up to seven and took a 62-57 lead into the fourth quarter.
  • With ASU up by eight, the Broncos suddenly found their shooting touch making six of nine, including a pair of 3-pointers, to knot the score at 70-70 and again at 72-72 with 3:14 remaining.
  • ASU would respond each time. The most clutch basket came from Washenitz who, after Santa Clara cut ASU’s lead to a single point with 40 seconds left, responded at the opposite end with a floating jumper to give ASU an 80-77 lead. After Santa Clara failed to tie the game, Poa clinched the win by hitting a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining.

Up next

The Sun Devils will be back at Desert Financial Arena on Saturday (2 p.m. MST) to face UNLV, the first of six consecutive games ASU will play at home. The Rebels have averaged 28 wins the past four seasons (26, 30, 31, 26) and have qualified for three of the past four NCAA Tournaments. Get tickets for Saturday's game on SunDevils.com.