ASU women's basketball routs Idaho State, prepares for Paradise Jam
Arizona State women’s basketball took full advantage of its nonconference schedule and delivered a 72-40 rout over Idaho State at Desert Financial Arena on Sunday.
After dropping the first game of the season this week, ASU’s defense had to tighten up following surrendering 15 3-pointers on Thursday at Grambling State. But that wasn’t an issue against ISU as the Bengals shot 2-for-11 from 3 (18.2%) and 16-for-56 (28.6%) from the floor.
"We took a lot from that game in a sense of competing for 40 minutes. Teams make runs and I felt like we set the tone from the tip today and we didn't let up," head coach Natasha Adair said. "We talked about that and we went back and watched where there moments in that game where we didn't capitalize on the turnovers, we didn't finish at the free throw line, so today was about focus and finish."
Sparked from a poor shooting performance and nine turnovers by Idaho State in the first quarter, ASU jumped to an 18-5 lead. ASU wasn’t shooting as well, but the Sun Devils pocketed six steals and scored seven points off turnovers. The Bengals didn’t get the first field goal until the 15th attempt and after that, it was too late to get a rhythm against ASU.
Having forward Jalyn Brown back paid dividends not only for depth but also for her athleticism. Brown chased down a loose ball and tapped the rebound over to Trayanna Crisp for a 3-pointer at 4:38 in the second for a 29-7 lead.
ASU’s bench chipped in 21 points with Mallory Miller scoring five points and seven rebounds. The true freshman has shown vast improvement in her fifth game and challenged ISU in the post.
Key moments
Third quarters have been a point of emphasis for ASU in the young season as the Sun Devils have often come out slow and without the first half’s momentum. With ISU finishing the second quarter with a 4-0 run, ASU couldn’t take the lead for granted and got to work quickly.
Maggie Besselink played heavily on both ends, grabbing five points, three steals, and an assist during ASU’s early 9-0 run.
From there, the Sun Devils outscored the Bengals 21-12 in the third quarter and scored eight points from ISU’s seven turnovers.
Top performers
Trayanna Crisp once again lit up the floor with 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Crisp helped Jaddan Simmons command the floor and the two combined for nine assists, with six coming from Crisp.
Maggie Besselink sparked the Sun Devils in the third quarter and continued with 10 points and seven rebounds. Besselink had three steals and was key in pressuring ISU’s offense.
Forward Journey Thompson had ISU's leading scorer Tasia Jordan as her defensive assignment and held her to two points.
They said it
"Mallory earned those minutes and we really don't give anything. I think it's just her consistency every day in practice and knowing how they were going to guard us and how she was going to get those openings, I felt like she was going to get an advantage today. We all talked about it had to come from defense and we had to rebound the ball and we had a taller lineup and she responded." — head coach Natasha Adair on Mallory Miller's impact off the bench.
"The high school teams I played against were super small and I had a big advantage and that's obviously not the same here. I think that's something I had to work on and do better quickly because I wanted to get minutes this year and I knew I had to fix that. Also, just defense, in high school, I didn't have to play defense because I just blocked. You can't do that against someone who is just as talented as you." — forward Mallory Miller on adjusting to the college game from high school.
"(Journey Thompson) can guard posts, she can guard posts. She can get up and down the court. It just gives us another asset because nobody else can really guard her. They can't really put a guard on her and if they put a post, she's just going to stretch them out. It gives us more versatility." — guard Trayanna Crisp on Journey Thompson's impact.
Up next
ASU (4-1) will conclude the opening month of play with a trip to the Virgin Islands to play three games in three days at the Paradise Jam. The games will be vs. No. 11 Texas (Thanksgiving Day), vs. USF (Friday), vs. High Point (Saturday).
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU women's hoops routs Idaho State, preps for Paradise Jam
