TEMPE – The Sun Devil women’s basketball team was unable to get a season split with BYU following a 66-61 loss to the Cougars at Desert Financial Arena on Wednesday night.
Following the evening's results, the Sun Devils (22-8, 9-8 Big 12) are in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Big 12 standings with Iowa State (21-8, 9-8) and Utah (18-11, 9-8). All three teams lead Kansas (18-11, 8-9), BYU (19-10, 8-9) and Kansas State (15-15, 8-9) by one game. All 16 Big 12 teams have one game remaining (taking place Saturday and Sunday).
At stake for ASU going into Sunday’s regular season finale at No. 20 Texas Tech is finishing as one of the top eight teams (after all tiebreakers have been decided) in the final Big 12 standings so they can get a bye into the second round of next week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament (March 4-8/9 in Kansas City at T-Mobile Center). Teams not among the top eight (those finishing between 9th-16th) will play in the first round when tournament play commences on March 4; teams finishing 5th-8th automatically advance to the second round of the tournament being played on March 5 and the top four finishers automatically advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament being played on March 6.
Sun Devil standouts
- McKinna Brackens led ASU in scoring with 16 points, the 13th time this season she has led or tied for the team lead in scoring. In her last five games, Brackens has averaged 18.4 points per game while shooting 50.4 pct (32-55). Although it is not one of her primary, go-to tools, Brackens has proven several times to be a strong shooter from long range as evidenced by her 71.4 shooting percentage (5-7 3FGs) during the current five game stretch. Brackens also had five rebounds and two assists.
- Heloisa Carrera scored 14 points and pulled down six rebounds. Carrera, who leads ASU in FG pct. (52.3), has been connecting at an even higher clips in her last five games: 60.5 percent (26-43 FGs).
- Jyah LoVett was once again a strong contributor coming off the bench, scoring 10 points, the sixth time this season and second straight game she scored in double figures.
- Gabby Elliott scored 10 points and had three assists.
- After tying for the team lead with eight rebounds in ASU’s win over Houston on Saturday, Marley Washenitz paced ASU with seven rebounds vs. BYU and led ASU in steals for the second straight game with three on Wednesday night.
- Last-Tear Poa led ASU with five assists.
How it happened
- ASU was outrebounded by three (40-37) and had one fewer offensive rebound than BYU (12-11), yet still found a way to outscore the Cougars 12-3 in second chance points.
- Both teams had trouble shooting from long range: BYU – 25 percent and ASU: 23.5 percent. The two teams combined to make one out of 17 attempts in the fourth quarter.
- ASU made a higher percentage of free throws (15-18/83 percent), but the Cougars ended with three more points (18-22/82 percent) than the Sun Devils.
- Defensively, ASU could not have gotten off to a better start as it held BYU to only 18 points in the first half, including a six-point second quarter. The 18 points represented the second fewest number of points scored by an ASU opponent this season while the six points in the second quarter tied the third fewest by an opponent this season.
- During the same 20 minutes, the Cougars made only 27 percent of their shots. Of the seven field goals they made, only one was from beyond the arc where they made only 11 percent (1-11).
- Carrera (10 points) and Brackens (seven points) combined for 17 points to help ASU take a 31-18 lead at the half.
- There was little sign the momentum ASU established in the first half would dissipate in the second half after Elliott’s jumper 14 seconds into the third quarter gave ASU its largest lead of the game, 33-18.
- After Olivia Hamlin’s layup cut ASU’s lead to 40-33 with 4:38 remaining, both teams suddenly found it difficult to score. Hamlin broke the stalemate with a triple to get BYU within four. Combined with Hamlin’s layup two minutes earlier, BYU went on to outscore ASU 13-2 to take a 46-42 lead into the fourth quarter.
- After scoring eight of the first 10 points of the game’s final quarter, BYU went up 54-44.
- With the Cougars up 58-49, a 6-0 run in the span of 80 seconds got ASU within one possession after Poa’s free throw made the score 58-55 with 2:46 remaining.
- After ASU missed its next five shots, BYU was able to eventually reclaim a seven-point lead. However, the drama was not over after a layup by Washenitz again had ASU within three, 62-59 with 41 seconds remaining.
- Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, they did not have any more possessions in which they had the ball and a chance to tie as the Cougars made a jumper and two free throws with six seconds remaining to close out the game.
Sun Devil senior salute
Following the game, Sun Devil Women’s Basketball honored senior Sun Devils Gabby Elliott, Makayla Moore, Last-Tear Poa and Marley Washenitz. All four players were key in helping ASU set a new program record for the best start in program history (15-0), tie the school record for consecutive wins (15) and post season sweeps of Utah (first time since 2019) and Arizona (first time since 2018) for the first time in several seasons.
Up next
The Sun Devils will conclude the regular season in Lubbock, Texas, on Sunday when they play at No. 20 Texas Tech. The game (2 p.m. CST/1 p.m. MST) can be seen on ESPN+ and heard on KDUS AM 1060.