TEMPE — Pink shirts filled Desert Financial Arena in support of breast cancer awareness as Arizona State faced Oklahoma State on Wednesday night. Amidst the 3,138 spectators, three-time WBA champion and icon Diana Taurasi watched on courtside.
But ASU junior wing Deborah Davenport didn’t realize she was there for most of the contest.
“I kind of forgot she was sitting there, I’m not going to lie,” she said after the game.
Perhaps that was because she could only focus on her season-high performance. The junior tallied 18 points and nine rebounds off the bench to help the Sun Devils (19-5 overall, 6-5 Big 12) secure a 74-69 home win over Oklahoma State (18-6 overall, 7-4 Big 12), putting Sparky one game behind the Cowgirls in the Big 12 standings.
Junior forward McKinna Brackens led ASU in scoring for the second straight game as she logged 20 points and eight rebounds. Graduate guard Gabby Elliott, who didn’t score a single bucket in the first half, netted 17 points after halftime to help Molly Miller’s squad improve to 6-5 in conference play.
The two teams entered the game with the same overall record, with two wins separating the squads in the Big 12 standings. ASU looked to avoid back-to-back home losses for the first time this season, while Oklahoma State aimed to remain in the top five of the conference with a victory.
OSU began the day as the highest scoring team in the Big 12, averaging 86 points per game. However, the Cowgirls started slowly, shooting 5-for-16 from the field and making just one of nine 3-pointers after ten minutes. Senior guards Haleigh Timmer and Micah Gray, who led Oklahoma State in scoring entering Wednesday, combined for zero points in the first quarter.
“We were trying to help and tag on rollers and dribble penetration, but have a sense of urgency to get back out on shooters,” Miller said in her postgame press conference on how her team limited OSU’s high-flying offense. “So rush them a little bit more, maybe make them a little bit more uncomfortable by being in their face sooner. We said we had to have a sense of urgency this game, and I’m proud of how they approached it.”
Davenport impressed early with 12 bench points in the first half while securing two rebounds. Fifth-year guard Last-Tear Poa drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Sun Devils up 31-29 at the break, a position they’ve been in 20 times this season.
After a quiet first half and zero points to her name, Elliott responded quickly after halftime. The guard tallied eight points in less than five minutes as ASU’s offense found rhythm. The Maroon and Gold sank three more 3-pointers as they finished the quarter with their highest shooting percentage from the field of the game (62.5%).
Defensively throughout the quarter, Miller’s team held the Cowgirls to 30.4% in field goals – their lowest of the contest.
“After our Kansas State game, we didn’t have a physical practice. We had a metal one,” Miller said. “And I turned over a blank sheet of scout papers, and they had to watch Oklahoma State, and they presented the scout (report). So things matter to us.”
But the Cowgirls continued chipping away at their deficit. Despite not making a field goal for over three minutes, the visitors entered the final two minutes within two possessions of taking the lead.
Perhaps no play summarized Davenport’s performance more than an action late in the fourth quarter. With ASU up by four and less than a minute remaining, the junior secured a huge rebound off Brackens’ missed 3-pointer. It allowed Sparky to drain more seconds and send Elliott to the free-throw line, where she extended ASU’s lead to five points.
The play iced the game, capping off the Maroon and Gold’s 13th home win of the season.
“We rely on Brackens, Gabby and El (sophomore forward Heloisa Carrera) a lot, but then you can see the weapon that Deb can be and others can be to hit shots and help our team,” Miller said.
The Sun Devils head to Texas on Saturday as Miller’s side takes on Baylor at 4 p.m. MST.
“We dropped a couple (games) that we didn’t think we should have, now we (have) got to go get one that maybe other people think we shouldn’t have,” Miller said. “I’m always really confident in this team. 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 moving forward.”
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