Briann January was a quality defender in her playing days. The former Sun Devil was named to the WNBA All-Defensive First Team five times and to the Second Team twice.
This year’s Sun Devils made January proud on Friday night at Desert Financial Arena. They defended well against an offensive Pacific Tigers, winning 76-66 in their first game at the tournament named after their star alumnus.
“She did it on defense,” Sun Devils head coach Natasha Adair said about January. “She was relentless defensively. We said you know what, that’s a way to honor her.”
Adair’s side attacked the rim to start the game, wrapping up the first quarter with 18 points, but Pacific cracked the Sun Devils’ defense. They led 20-18 at the end of the period, going on a 9-3 run, finished with a lay-in from senior guard Liz Smith at the buzzer.
Sophomore guard Jalyn Brown scored 11 of Arizona State’s 18 first-quarter points. She can shoot from a distance, going 4 for 9 combined from behind the arc in her last two games in the Paradise Jam. However, Brown’s eleven included five drives to the bucket and one free throw.
“I realized, most of the time, if teams see me shooting pretty well in a game before, [then] it’s going to be a driving day,” Brown said. “Today, I saw that they were pressing up on me. So, it was a good time to utilize my foot speed, get around them, and get to the basket.”
Both teams struggled offensively in the following 10 minutes. Arizona State resorted to free throw shooting, going 4 for 6 in the first 3:40 of the second quarter. Its first field goal of the period came from senior guard Jaddan Simmons with 4:37 left to go.
While the Sun Devils never led in the second quarter, they equalized the game at 28 with 34 seconds remaining off a putaway from junior forward Sandra Magolico.
With the two sides knotted at the break, Adair made some changes to swing momentum in her team’s favor.
One was bringing on sophomore guard Trayanna Crisp as a second-half starter. Crisp, who is second on the team in points scored after Friday night’s matchup, scored zero points as a bench player in the first half.
She scored six in the third quarter, including the game’s first triple with 4:25 left in the period. Crisp was one of the Sun Devils who scored on their 18-6 run in the first six minutes and two seconds of the second half. The hosts led 55-41 at the end of the third quarter.
However, the Tigers clawed away in the fourth quarter. They went on a 19-5 run over seven minutes to tie the game at 60.
The game remained within one possession until there was 1:27 remaining.
With the Sun Devils up 65-63, Simmons missed her free throw after making a basket, but Crisp stole the ball while the Tigers were advancing up the court. She passed it to sophomore forward Journey Thompson, whose layup made it 67-63.
From there, Pacific had to foul Arizona State. Specifically, Simmons, who the Tigers fouled three consecutive times. She went 5 for 6 from the free-throw line, helping to put the game out of reach.
“I was struggling in the Virgin Islands a little bit,” said Simmons, who finished with a career-high 26 points. “So, it just feels good to get back home and just really concentrate on what I need to do to help out my team.”
Brown followed Simmons in points scored with 20, reaching that benchmark for the second consecutive game. Friday night’s showing was also her fifth double-digit performance of the season.
While the Sun Devils were outrebounded on both sides of the ball, they dominated the turnover margin. Adair’s side forced 20 turnovers while only committing 10.
Long-range shooting was almost non-existent. Pacific and Arizona State shot 2 for 22 combined from behind the arc. The Tigers went 1 for 14, with senior guard Kadie Deaton hitting the visitor’s sole triple with 1:34 left in the third quarter. The Sun Devils went 1 for 8.
The Sun Devils (7-2) will look to extend their three-game win streak Saturday at 4 p.m. MST when they host a Xavier Musketeers side that has lost its last 27 games. For Adair’s side, that means continuing to execute the fundamentals.
“We’re going to defend,” Adair said. “We’re going to rebound. We’re going to run in transition off of our defense, and we’re going to execute into the best shots possible to score.”
Leave a Reply