TEMPE – Sun Devil Women's Basketball moved back into the neighborhood of 20-win programs on Wednesday night, following its 71-61 win over Utah at Desert Financial Arena.
Under head coach Molly Miller, who tied Joseph Anders for the most wins by a first-year head coach – Anders had a record of 20-12 while serving as interim head coach in 2011-12 – the Sun Devils (20-6, 7-6 Big 12) posted 20 wins for the 21st time in program history. The last time the Sun Devils occupied such real estate was in 2019-20 when ASU had the last of its school record seven consecutive 20-win seasons under Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame coach Charli Turner Thorne.
With Wednesday’s win, the Sun Devils moved into a four-way tie for seventh place with Utah (16-9, 7-6), Kansas State (14-12, 7-6) and Iowa State (19-6, 7-6) in the Big 12 standings. All four teams trail fifth-place squads Oklahoma State (19-7, 8-5) and Colorado (17-8, 8-5) by one game with five conference games remaining for all six teams.
ASU’s 20-6 record represents the 11th time in 12 seasons as a head coach that Miller has won 20 or more games in a season. In six seasons at NCAA DII Drury, where she started her career as a head coach in 2014, Miller won no fewer than 26 games, including four seasons with 30 or more wins, and lost no more than five games in a season. Before taking the reins of the Sun Devil women’s basketball program last March, Miller coached five seasons at Grand Canyon University where she won more than 20 games four times, including a school record 32 victories that culminated with the program’s first invite to the NCAA Tournament last year.
Sun Devil standouts
- One of the biggest factors in ASU’s success this season has been its ability to play its best in the most crucial moments of a game. On Wednesday vs. Utah, Gabby Elliott scored 13 of her game high-tying 19 points in the second half. For Elliott, it was the third-straight game she scored in double figures in the second half. In ASU’s win vs. Oklahoma State (Feb. 4), Elliott scored all 17 of her points in the second half. Ditto, in Saturday’s near upset of then-No. 15 Baylor in Waco, Texas, in which Elliott scored 15 of her game-high 25 points in the second half. Against Utah, Elliott also tied for the team lead in rebounds (five) had a game-high four steals and went over the 500 mark for career rebounds (now has 504).
- McKinna Brackens, who scored a career-high 31 points including the tying and go-ahead free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining in the first meeting vs. Utah on Dec. 31, scored 14 points, had a career-high six assists and tied her career high with three blocks in Wednesday’s rematch.
- Heloisa Carrera scored eight of her 12 points in the first half and tied for the team lead with five rebounds.
- Last-Tear Poa scored nine points (7-8 FTs), had three assists and three rebounds.
How it happened
- ASU’s defensive performance vs. Utah was the unabridged version of what it did in the fourth quarter of its contests vs. Arizona (did not allow the Wildcats to go ahead or tie the score after the Sun Devils took a 54-53 lead with seven minutes remaining), vs. Oklahoma State (down by 10 in the final two minutes of the third quarter, when the Cowgirls pulled within one point with 6:40 remaining, the Sun Devils were resolute not to let OSU's gust of momentum allow it to tie the game or take the lead) and in its bid to upset then-No. 15 Baylor that nearly came to fruition last Saturday (in allowing the Bears to make only one of their last eight shots, ASU was able to create an opportunity to send the contest to overtime in the game's final seconds).
- Against Utah, the Sun Devils led for 38:31 of the game’s 40 minutes. The Utes were up 7-6 and 9-8 in the first quarter. ASU led 15-11 at the end of 10 minutes. The Utes got within two points in the second quarter, went to the half trailing ASU 33-30, tied the game at 39-39 and were within one point, 42-41, in the third quarter.
- After ASU took its biggest lead of the game, 54-43 following Elliott’s jumper 12 seconds into the fourth quarter, Utah scored the game’s next seven points and cut ASU’s advantage to four, 54-50, with 7:19 remaining. However, the Utes were not able to draw any closer as ASU’s defense slammed the door shut, forcing Utah to miss seven of its last 10 shots.
- ASU took care of business in the fourth quarter on the offensive end, making 56 percent of its shots (5-9) and 90 percent (9-10) of its free throws.
- The Sun Devils tied their second-highest number of triples in a game with seven and connected on 54 percent of their attempts.
- The Utes, who came into the shooting 34.8 percent while averaging 9.1 makes per game from long range, hit only 24 percent (6-25) of such attempts vs. ASU.
- Although they ended up minus-14 in the battle of the boards, the Sun Devils maximized their four offensive rebounds as they ended the game tied with Utah in second chance points (11-11) despite the Utes’ 12-4 advantage on the offensive glass.
- For the second consecutive game ASU had only 11 turnovers, tying its second-lowest total of the season.
Up next
The Sun Devils will have another rematch on Saturday (12 p.m. MST) when they play at Arizona. The game can be seen on ESPN+ and heard on KDUS AM 1060.