TEMPE – The Sun Devil Women’s Basketball team (8-0) remained unbeaten, using a 45-20 scoring advantage during the middle two quarters on its way to a season-high point total in Saturday’s 85-56 win over Southeast Missouri (2-3).
On the verge of making history
Now with eight wins in eight games, Molly Miller’s first ASU squad is approaching the best start in program history. ASU’s current 8-0 record ties the second-best mark (8-0 by the 1990-91 squad coached by current Sun Devil radio analyst Maura McHugh). Only the 1991-92 (9-0) team – also coached by McHugh – opened its campaign with more consecutive wins. If ASU goes unbeaten in non-conference home games – it will play its final two non-conference home games next weekend – it will own the best start in program history (10-0).
Sun Devil standouts
- Heloisa Carrera posted her first career double-double with career highs in points (game-high 21), rebounds (tying game-high 10), field goals made (nine) and blocks (two).
- Last-Tear Poa had her first career double-double with 12 points and a tying career-high 10 assists (set initially in ASU’s season-opening win over Coppin State) while also grabbing five rebounds.
- Gabby Elliott (14 points) and McKinna Brackens (10 points) both scored in double figures for the seventh time in eight games. Brackens also had seven rebounds and three assists.
- Marley Washenitz had a solid line with nine points, five rebounds and four assists.
- Makayla Moore led ASU’s bench, scoring a season-high nine points out of the 19 points scored by ASU’s reserves.
- Deborah Davenport set career highs for rebounds (seven) and steals (four).
How it happened
- For the second straight game, ASU overwhelmed its opponent on the defensive end in the second quarter, allowing SEMO to score the same number of points as Little Rock did on Friday: five. By the time the Redhawks scored their first points of the quarter, a 3-pointer with 4:22 remaining, they were down 26-21.
- SEMO made it five straight points to get within three, 26-23. Although the Blazers did not know it at the time, Lexi McCully’s jumper with 3:46 remaining would be the final points they’d score in the quarter. ASU scored the last six points of the half to take a 32-23 lead at the half.
- Carrera scored (11 points) and Brackens (nine points) combined to score 20 of ASU’s 29 points in the third quarter, the most points scored by ASU in a quarter this season.
- ASU was plus-12 on the boards (46-34) and doubled up SEMO on the offensive glass (18-9). The Sun Devils took advantage of those extra opportunities, outscoring SEMO 16-4 in second-chance points.
- ASU had an overwhelming advantage in points in the paint (60-10). In addition, they converted SEMO’s 26 turnovers into 27 points.
- ASU finished strong, making 51 percent of its shots in the second half.
Notes
- In addition to scoring the most points in a game (85) and quarter (29), ASU also scored its most points in a half this season with 53 over the final 20 minutes, surpassing the 50 it scored in the first half at Santa Clara.
- Only one ASU opponent (Santa Clara, 77 points) has scored more than 58 points vs. ASU this season.
- ASU had a season-low 10 turnovers on Saturday.
- In the second quarter of its last four games, ASU has outscored the opposition 86-35 or an average of 21.5-8.8 per game.
- The Sun Devils have now scored 20 or more points in a quarter 13 times this season.
- ASU has held the opposition to 13 (52.0 ppg average) or fewer points in a quarter 15 times (11x in first half) this season, including single digits seven times (5x in first half).
- In the last three games, ASU’s opponents, Utah Tech (5-28), Little Rock (5-17) and SEMO (3-18) have made only 21 percent (13-63) of their 3-point FG attempts.
Up next
- Saturday’s contest was ASU’s third of three home games this week and its fourth of six consecutive home games overall. The current stretch of home contests started vs. UNLV on Nov. 22 and will conclude next weekend when ASU hosts the annual Briann January Classic at Mullett Arena.
- Like this weekend, ASU will play two games in two days: vs. McNeese State on Friday at 6:30 p.m. MST and vs. San Francisco on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. MST. The Briann January Classic will also feature a pair of neutral-site games: Nevada vs. San Francisco on Friday at 4 p.m. MST and McNeese State vs. Nevada on Saturday at 12 p.m. MST. Click here to purchase tickets to next week’s games.
Postgame quotes
Head coach Molly Miller on getting the win tonight
“This one felt good because it was more complete. The energy never stopped when we subbed. The energy was still there. The third quarter was kind of one of our quarters that we were really looking to turn the tables on, separate a little bit, and that was good for us. I think we scored 29 in the third quarter, and so we’ve been focusing on that. To see those things come to fruition after a lot of talk and focus, and practice, you can tell this team is bought in and growing. Very proud of the effort today. It all starts with our defense. We had 27 points off turnovers and then 60 points in the paint. That kind of tells the story of the game.”
On being able to bounce back from a slow start
“I think they know what our identity should look, feel, and sound like. And so when you're off your course with the brand of basketball, it’s nice to have leaders to get you back on course. We’ve relied on Marley (Washenitz) a lot, but I thought (Last-Tear) Poa was a good spark. I thought her defense was good tonight, and she had 10 assists, so the offensive numbers tell a story there. I thought she gave us a good spark that we needed. Poa comes from a winning culture, but she hasn't had much contribution in terms of minutes played on the court. So now it's getting to some of those winning ways and habits to show up consistently on the court. I thought this was a good breakthrough night for her.”
On having multiple players to rely on
“It’s nice to have multiple different people you can rely on. Again, (McKinna) Brackens has had some crazy good games and then Heloisa (Carrera) has had some crazy good games. If we can get them to play really good together, watch out. But then they’re figuring out each other, too. What does Poa do well? What does Gabby (Elliot) do well? What does Marley do well? Amaya (Williams), they’re like, ‘all right, Amaya, every time you get to the nail, 15 footer, take it.’ On scout too, you can’t look at two or three players. You have to really focus on the whole team, and that should be and will be a weapon for us.”
Sophomore forward Heloisa Carrera
On getting a double-double
“It feels great, we played together. Our coach, she talked to us in the end, she said that’s how we want to play every time, playing together, sharing the ball, looking at each other every time, so it feels great.”
On what separates ASU from other teams
“Our defense, we say that our defense builds our offense, so being able to defend and then on offense playing together and having chemistry and looking for each other, that’s big.”
Graduate guard Last-Tear Poa
On how they’ve started the season undefeated
“It comes from chemistry. In the beginning, we were all new, so we were trying to get used to playing with each other. But game after game, we’ve proven through offense and defense how to play with each other. Being disciplined in practice, too, helps a lot.”
On why ASU fans should attend more games
“Just being who we are, we’re big on culture checks, but by winning, people want to see people win, so engaging the fans more and winning more.”