After trailing 9-0 to start the game, the Sun Devils went on an 18-8 run to take the lead. The No. 5 Colorado Buffaloes answered with an 8-0 run, but the home crowd was behind the Maroon and Gold, looking to pull the upset.
And then the second quarter happened.
Colorado went on a 25-7 run, and the home side made only one field goal as it trailed 50-25 heading back to the locker room.
It overshadowed a stellar second half as the Sun Devils fell 81-68 to the Buffaloes on Sunday afternoon at Desert Financial Arena, remaining winless in conference play.
“We showed them things [at halftime] that were just too easy,” Arizona State head coach Natasha Adair said. “Transition was just too easy. We were just letting the ball go inside without ball pressure and without doing the things that we had talked about.”
Four Buffaloes reached double digits, with three of them scoring most of their points in one quarter. Junior center Aaronette Vonleh scored 14 of her 20 in the first, graduate guard Maddie Nolan had 9 of her 11 in the second and senior guard Frida Formann bagged 10 of her 13 in the third. Graduate forward Quay Miller, who logged 11, scored at least two each quarter.
However, the best performance of the afternoon came from Arizona State’s sophomore guard Jalyn Brown. Her 35 points are the most by a Sun Devil this century. The Louisville transfer excelled on mid-range jumpers and went 2/7 from behind the arc. She also sunk 11 of her 12 free throws and played the entire game.
“It’s a blessing, but I feel like I’ve worked for it,” Brown said about her achievement. ”So, every day, I’m training. Every day, we’re preparing. My coach is preparing me to be put in those positions. So, just being ready to do what I’m told to do and just to help the team in any way possible.”
Sophomore guard Trayanna Crisp and graduate guard Isadora Sousa aided Brown on the attack with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Despite leaving Friday’s game against No. 15 Utah in the first quarter after injuring her shoulder, Crisp started today’s game, playing for more than 27 minutes. After a sluggish start, She scored all of her points in the second half, and seven of them came from the charity stripe.
Sousa missed the first 10 games of the season with an injury. In her third start and fourth appearance of the season, she set a new career high.
Adair is proud of their performances today after they both dealt with adversity.
“Trayanna Crisp, coming off what she went through in the last game, and she said, ‘Coach, I’m going to play, we’re going to figure it out,'” Adair said when extolling her players. “And then Isadora. Just her leadership. Here’s someone who battled with injuries, a super senior, if you will, but she leads this team in ways that so many of you all don’t see.”
Even though some Sun Devil players excelled in performance, Colorado bested Arizona State through its depth and in the post. The visitors won the bench points battle 17-2 and the points in the paint battle 36-20.
Nonetheless, Adair is pleased with how her team has improved this season, including against ranked opponents. After Arizona State lost 84-42 to No. 10 Texas at the Paradise Jam on Thanksgiving Day, its next result against a ranked opponent was a 58-41 loss to Utah Friday.
Today, they only lost by 13 to the fifth-best team in the country.
The Sun Devils (8-7, 0-3 Pac-12) hit the road next weekend to face the Oregon Ducks (9-7, 0-3 Pac-12) Friday at 8 p.m. MST and the Oregon State Beavers (12-1, 1-1 in Pac-12) Sunday at 1 p.m MST.
With the Ducks and Beavers being unranked, Adair hopes her developing team can turn the moral victories into actual ones.
“If you’re into the stock market, you look at trends,” Adair said. “We talk about trending and what we’re doing as a team. You know, eight new players, different situations, different adversities, but it’s next woman up. They’re learning how to fight, they’re learning how to compete, they’re learning how to play together.”
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