TEMPE – After a disappointing loss just three days ago, in which the Sun Devils were outrebounded 34-28, ASU searched for an answer in the paint.
On Wednesday night, the search was seized, highlighted by an undeniable interior presence and forces down low.
“I think sometimes you need to learn,” Coach Molly Miller said about the win. “And we learned the hard way. Sometimes that’s how you have to learn.”
Arizona State (19-5, 6-5) continued its stretch of home games by taking on the surging Oklahoma State Cowgirls (18-6, 7-4), who just beat ASU’s biggest rival, Arizona, on Sunday. In the end, the Sun Devils paved the lane to a 74-69 victory at Desert Financial Arena, bouncing back in a huge way.
The maroon and gold totaled their most blocks in a single game this season with nine rejections. Junior forward Deborah Davenport led the charge for ASU, sending back three shots and gathering a team-high nine rebounds.
Davenport also tallied her season-high in points in the contest with 18, including three long-range shots. The junior only had one triple all season, her last coming at Oregon State in December.
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“This (Davenport) is a winner,” Miller said about her first-year transfer forward. “This is what we want our program to be built on. This is who we want to continue, the types of kids we want to recruit.”
Davenport also came up clutch in the waning seconds of the game, securing her second offensive rebound on a missed three very late in the fourth quarter. The rebound led to graduate guard and reliable free-throw shooter Gabby Elliott trotting to the charity stripe to knock down two free throws.
However, Davenport wasn’t the only frontcourt option that showed up today for Sparky.
Junior forward McKinna Brackens led the Sun Devils in scoring for her second game in a row with 20+ points recorded. Brackens also pulled in eight rebounds of her own, adding to the team’s total of 39.
“I thought they (Arizona State) were definitely the tougher team,” Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt said about the Sun Devils. “We were just outtoughed and outhustled. I did not recognize my team tonight.”
The Cowgirls came into Wednesday night as the highest scoring team in the Big 12, averaging an impressive 86.0 points per game. The Sun Devils held them to just 69, a benchmark that Oklahoma State has excelled at in 18 of its 24 games this season.
With the ASU lockdown defense on display, Oklahoma State struggled to find any answer in the painted area, lurking with relentless Sun Devil defenders. The Cowgirls were 9-for-30 on layups and got outscored in the interior 28-22.
“I’m very proud of myself and my teammates,” Davenport said after the win. “Coach Molly, all week, was speaking life into us and keeping us positive. So I think that really helped us a lot to win this game and bounce back from our loss.”
The three-headed monster in the paint was rounded out by sophomore forward Heloisa Carrera, who also recorded three blocks. While not her best shooting night from the field, four points and a 2-for-5 clip, she still produced down low with four rebounds.
Carrera also intimidated as a presence in the low block, forcing her typical matchup junior forward Achol Akot to struggle. While Akot scored 18 points, she finished with a 6-for-15 shooting percentage (40%), 25 percentage points less than her season average.
“Down the stretch, we said the tougher team, the team that fights the most, will win this game,” Miller said about her defense. “You can control the defensive end. You can control communication and talking. You can control getting on the floor for loose balls.”
Despite the huge Quad 1 win tonight for the Sun Devils, the Big 12 schedule continues to heat up. Arizona State will now set its sights on Waco, Texas. The team travels to take on Baylor on Saturday, February 7, at 4:00 p.m. Arizona time.
The Bears rank third in the conference in total rebounds, corralling 41.0 per game. Miller’s squad will hope that their frontcourt can reveal another stellar performance to keep the team alive for NCAA March Madness hopes.
“I’m always really confident in this team,” Miller said. “I’ve told them we can win every single game we play in this conference, or we can lose every single game in this conference … So now, the decision is up to us.”
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