KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After nabbing two close wins to start the week, No. 10-seed Arizona State’s run in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament came to an end on Friday.
No. 2-seed West Virginia held off the Devils, defeating ASU 67-54 to advance to the semifinal game.
“That was a game that was hard fought,” Arizona State coach Molly Miller said. “It was a back-and-forth battle.”
The Mountaineers made their debut at the tournament Friday evening, as they received a double-bye due to finishing in a top-four position in the conference. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils entered the contest fresh off a pair of tight wins over No. 15-seed Arizona and No. 7-seed Iowa State.
The last time WVU and ASU met, the Mountaineers took the win, 54-43. And although the Maroon and Gold showed some fight late, the game was mostly one-sided in West Virginia’s favor.
Still, Miller and WVU coach Mark Kellogg brought the intensity early, barking out to their teams from the sidelines.
Eventually, Miller’s frustration boiled over into a heated interaction with the officials before a timeout, as her team found itself down 34-21 at one point in the second quarter.
The Maroon and Gold struggled to find a groove offensively, shooting 11-for-25 from the field in the first half. In part due to the Mountaineers’ aggressive style of defense, which pestered the ASU all evening long.
Nonetheless, ASU kept fighting, as senior guard Marley Washenitz helped spearhead a charge back into the game with two 3-pointers to keep the Sun Devils momentum going.
“I wouldn’t want to spend my last year playing college basketball any other way,” Washenitz said.
However, West Virginia went into the half up 39-30. WVU senior guard Sydney Shaw racked up a team-leading 11 points in the first half.
The next 20 minutes looked vastly different. Slowly, the Sun Devils began to find their rhythm and play Miller’s style of defense. Still though, Sparky couldn’t scratch into the lead, down big going into the fourth.
Yet, in the final quarter, ASU found another gear. The Sun Devils cut the lead to single digits, then to just a few possessions and then just two points after a three from Washenitz that brought the score to 52-50.
In the end, however, Arizona State ran out of gas, allowing West Virginia to pull away late and advance to the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
The Sun Devils will now anxiously wait for Selection Sunday, March 15th, to see whether or not they’ve earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“I won’t remember the scoreboard, but what I will remember is how we did this together and how much fun we had,” Miller said. “I just felt like we trusted each other, and we built relationships.”
Will ASU make the big dance?
Only time will tell, but Miller believes her squad has earned the right to continue to play in March.
“If you’re going to go play in the most competitive tournament in the country, you want the most competitive teams, and that’s Arizona State.”
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