Sun Devil WBB (21-7, 8-7 Big 12) vs. Houston (7-19, 1-14 Big 12)
Saturday, February 21, 2026
2 p.m. MST
Desert Financial Arena • Tempe, Ariz.
Up next
The Sun Devil women’s basketball team (21-7, 8-7 Big 12) begins its last homestand of the season when it hosts Houston on Saturday (2 p.m. MST) at Desert Financial Arena. The Sun Devils will close out the home portion of their schedule on Wednesday (6:30 p.m.) when they host BYU on Senior Night. ASU will conclude regular season play on Mar. 1 at Texas Tech (currently ranked No. 20) in the nation, and then will head to Kansas City, Mo., for the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Watch/Listen
Saturday’s game vs. Houston can be seen on ESPN+ (Braiden Bell, Kelly Burke). It can also be heard on KDUS AM 1060 (pregame coverage will start at 1:30 p.m. MST). The state of Arizona’s 2010 and 2019 Broadcaster of the Year, Jeff Munn, who on Dec. 4, 2025, was named a recipient of the Arizona Media Association Lifetime Service Award, is in his 22nd season as the voice of ASU WBB. He will be joined by former Sun Devil head coach Maura McHugh.
No place like home
When the Sun Devil women’s basketball team plays Houston on Saturday, it will have been 109 days since Nov. 4, 2025. The significance? That was the night Sun Devil Women’s Basketball officially started the Molly Miller era. No doubt, there was plenty of excitement after the Sun Devils defeated Coppin State in the first of 17 home games they had on their 2025-26 docket.
A little than three months later, the Sun Devils (14-1 at home this season) find themselves with an opportunity to set or tie another program record. With a win over Houston on Saturday, ASU will tie the 2005-06 squad for the second-most home wins by a Sun Devil team (15-0). A win over Houston coupled with a win over BYU on Wednesday in the final home game of the season and the Sun Devils will tie the 2014-15 squad (16-2) for the most home wins accumulated by a Sun Devil team. How much of a factor have the home fans played in the team’s success? When playing at home this season ASU has... Outscored the opposition by an average of 13.9 ppg... shot 8.9 percentage points higher than the opposition. And for those who love defense: Eight of ASU’s home opponents have scored less than 55 points.
Series notes vs. Houston
- This will be the fourth meeting – series started in 2021 – between the Sun Devils and Cougars.
- Houston prevailed in the first two contests. It claimed a 50-48 win in the consolation final of the Postseason WNIT’s Fort Worth Regional played in March 2021. A little more than eight months later at the Cancun Challenge, the Cougars came out on top 68-60.
- ASU got into the series’ win column last season, 69-60, at Houston. Jyah LoVett had a remarkable game, scoring 14 of her 16 points in the second half, including seven of ASU’s 11 points in the fourth quarter.
State of play
- ASU was unable to make it consecutive road wins in Big 12 play following a 90-64 setback at Iowa State on Wednesday. The Sun Devils came into the game tied with the Cyclones for seventh place in the Big 12 standings. With Wednesday’s loss, the Sun Devils fell into a three-way tie for eighth place with Utah (17-10, 8-7, ASU swept Utah this season) and Kansas State (15-13, 8-7, KSU won the only meeting of the season with ASU). All 16 Big 12 teams have three games remaining in the regular season.
- What’s at stake in the last three conference games? Teams finishing between fifth and eighth place means a first-round bye and opening up tournament play in the second round (the top four seeds receive double-byes to the quarterfinals).
- ASU’s success has been even more impressive this season when considering it is playing in one of the nation’s most competitive conferences. As of Feb. 20, the Big 12 had 12 teams inside the top 60 of the NCAA’s NET rankings: TCU (11), West Virginia (20), Texas Tech (26), Oklahoma State (27), Baylor (31) Iowa State (32), Colorado (43), Kansas (51), ASU (52), Utah (55), K-State (57) and BYU (60).
- ASU has made six or more 3-pointers in four of its last five games. Not including its game at Baylor, ASU averaged 7.0 triples per game (+2.5 above average) while shooting 37.3 percent (+8.1 percentage points above average) in its contests vs. Oklahoma State, vs. Utah, at Arizona and at Iowa State.
- Gabby Elliott (nine) and McKinna Brackens (seven) have combined for 16 20-point games. Brackens has the third-highest number of double-doubles (seven) and the fifth-highest number 10-rebound games (seven).
- After further review: At Arizona (Feb. 14), Brackens scored 19 of her team-high 24 points in the 2nd half (10 points, including the game-tying bucket with 3.3 seconds remaining to send the game to OT) and overtime (nine points). In the first half of Wednesday’s game at Iowa State, Brackens made all nine of her field goals and led all players with 19 points at the half. Combining the second half + OT at Arizona and the first half at Iowa State, Brackens scored 38 points and made 78.9 percent of her FGs (15-19) in 42:28 minutes of play.
- ASU is 14-1 at home this season with its only loss coming vs. K-State (74-67 on Feb. 1). The Wildcats made 60 percent (12-20) of their attempts from long range. Since that game, the opposition (vs. Oklahoma St., at Baylor, vs. Utah, at Arizona, at Iowa State) has collectively made only 25 percent of its 3FG attempts.
Did you know as a head coach Molly Miller....?
- Entered the 2025-26 campaign third in winning percentage among active coaches who have served at least five years as a Division I head coach. At the outset of the 2025-26 campaign, Miller (84.4 pct/297-55 career record) trailed only legendary coaches Geno Auriemma (88.3 percent/1,250-165 career record) and Kim Mulkey (85.9 percent/754-124 career record).
- Has won 20 or more games 11 times in her 12 seasons as a head coach (including this 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, 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 in 2025.
- Including her 32-3 record at Grand Canyon last season, Miller is 53-10 over the last two seasons.
- Has won her last 37 of her last 38 home games going back to the 2023-24 season at GCU.
- Won her 300th game as an NCAA head coach on Nov. 13, 2025.
- ASU’s wins over Utah (Feb. 11) and at Arizona (Feb. 14) provided further evidence of how far ASU has come this season under Miller. ASU’s 71-61 win over Utah gave the Sun Devils their 20th win, the first time since 2019-20 it had won 20 games. It was also the first time since 2018-19 that ASU swept the regular season series over Utah. With ASU’s 75-69 overtime win at Arizona, Miller set the program record for the most wins by a first-year coach (21). The win at Arizona was ASU’s first over the Wildcats in Tucson since Feb. 18, 2018 and the first time since the 2017-18 season it swept Arizona.
- ASU’s 21 wins represent its highest victory total since the 2018-19 squad (22-11) that went on to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
- ASU’s seven road wins represent its highest win total in such games since the 2018-19 team went 7-4.
Out of Conference Notes
Arizona State’s perfect 5-0 road record in out of conference play was matched only by Kentucky and Austin Peay. The only other schools in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12 and Big East to play at least five true road out-of-conference games were Clemson (3-2), Tennessee (3-2), Georgia Tech (0-5) and Seton Hall (3-3). ASU out-of-conference road wins include top-100 NET teams (as of Feb. 20) Gonzaga (65), Santa Clara (71), Penn State (90) and Oregon State (91). It also won at Utah (55).
ASU went 13-0 outside of Big 12 action in 2025. As of Feb. 20, UNLV is 17-9 and 12-4 in the Mountain West Conference… McNeese is 23-4 and 17-1 in the Southland. ASU won at WCC leading Gonzaga (20-8, 12-3), at Oregon State (19-9, 11-4), at Santa Clara (21-7, 11-4) and topped San Francisco (15-11, 8-7) at home... The Zags, Beavers and Broncos are 32-6 in home games outside of the combined three losses to ASU.
Team notes
- ASU has the top two rebounding games by a Big 12 team this season: vs. Utah Tech (62) and vs. Santa Clara (59). Its rebounding effort vs. Utah Tech represented the third time in the last 25 years it had at least 60 rebounds in a game.
- ASU has scored 20 or more points in a quarter 29 times. Earlier this season, ASU scored 43 points in the second half of consecutive games – vs. Kansas State (Feb. 1) and vs. Oklahoma State (Feb. 4) – tying the second-highest point total in the second half this season.
- In its win at San Diego (Nov. 13), ASU tied the single-game program record for 3-pointers (14). As of Feb. 17, ASU’s 63.6 percentage from beyond the arc in that game is the second-highest 3-point shooting percentage by a Big 12 team this season.
- Six Sun Devils have led/tied for the team lead in scoring: Elliott (12x), Brackens (12x), Carrera (4x), Washenitz (1x), Williams (1x), LoVett (1x).
- Seven Sun Devils have scored in double figures multiple times: Elliott (25x), Brackens (23x), Carrera (12x), Washenitz (10x), LoVett (4x), Williams (4x) and Poa (2x). Seven Sun Devils have led or tied for the team lead in rebounding: Brackens (13x), Carrera (8x), Elliott (7x), Deborah Davenport (4x), Washenitz (1x), Martina Fantini (1x) and Poa (1x).
- Elliott, Carrera and Washenitz have started every game this season. Williams (three starts), LoVett (one start) and Davenport (two starts) have played in every game this season.
Individual player notes
- Gabby Elliott scored a season-high 30 points in ASU’s win at Gonzaga (Dec 16). Two games later, McKinna Brackens topped that with a new career standard of 31 points at Utah (Dec. 31).
- Elliott (9x), Brackens (7x) and Heloisa Carrera (3x) have combined to score 20 or more points 19x this season.
- Four different players have posted double-doubles this season: Brackens (7), Carrera (3), Elliott (1) and Poa (1).
- Poa (10 assists vs. SEMO and vs. Coppin State) and Amaya Williams (11 assists at San Diego) have combined for three double-digit assist games this season. Williams’ 11 assists were the most for a Sun Devil in a single game since current graduate assistant Reili Richardson had 11 at Colorado State on Dec. 9, 2018. Poa hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining in overtime in ASU’s 55-53 win at Oregon State (Dec. 14).
- Brackens’ second half (22 points) and fourth quarter (14 points) at Utah (Dec. 31) were reminiscent of what Elliott did at Gonzaga on Dec. 16. In that contest, Elliott scored 21 points in the second half with 17 of them coming in the final 10 minutes to lead ASU to a 68-66 win.
- At Arizona (Feb. 14), Brackens scored 19 of her team-high 24 points in the 2nd half (10 points, including the game-tying bucket with 3.3 seconds remaining to send the game to OT) and overtime (nine points).