TEMPE— Since Arizona State coach Molly Miller has set foot in Tempe, she’s established a culture rooted in defensive intensity.
On Wednesday night, her culture proved apparent.
Miller’s pressure-heavy defense served as the catalyst for ASU (20-6 overall, 7-6 Big 12) in its 71-61 win over Utah (16-9 overall, 7-6 Big 12).
The Sun Devils employed a press in the latter portion of the first half, a defense the Utes struggled to handle.
“We always want to pressure and make things difficult,” Miller said. “Whether that’s 94 feet, or just kind of one on one, man to man, working the ball down, that’ll be dependent a lot on time and score, and a little bit of foul issues, and non-foul issues”.
The defense forced a whopping 21 Utah turnovers. However, ASU struggled to capitalize on those giveaways, only notching 16 points off turnovers.
“Push and pace. We asked (Last-Tear) Poa to do that a little bit more strategically. There is a fine line between pushing just to push without a reason or pushing to gain an advantage.
“If we have a neutral court off those turnovers, we really want to execute. If we have an advantage, we want to create a domino effect off that advantage.”
The Sun Devils defended well both inside the paint and on the perimeter, holding the Utes to 38% from the field, which includes a low 24% from beyond the arc. Utah, for most of the game, ran its offense through the pick and roll, but to no avail, as Arizona State was prepared to guard it.
“Sometimes when you have a team that does continuous ball screen motion, you’re going to mix up ball screen coverages,” Miller said. “If you hard hedge, they’re going to slip, if you trap, they’re gonna pop out quick. We just mixed up ball screen coverage. I’m really confident because they are communicating really well.”
With postseason play approaching, staying true to its identity will be important to ASU in finding success as its competition tightens up.
Arizona State will look to continue its defensive dominance when it heads up to Tucson to face off against rival Arizona on Saturday, February 14, at noon MST.
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