Loville leads ASU women to blowout win over Harvard

In a classy gesture prior to Arizona State's women's basketball game against Harvard Sunday afternoon, ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne presented Crimson head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith with a bouquet of flowers in honor of Delaney-Smith's 40th and final season guiding the program.

That was about the extent of the kindness on the basketball court, as ASU's rebounding and defense were too much for Harvard in a 91-54 win at Desert Financial Arena.

Jade Loville led the way with 19 points and Mael Gilles recorded a double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The transfer from Rutgers came into the game 2 for 21 on 3-pointers, and hit two against Harvard.

Ayzhiana Basallo added 14 points off the bench, and Jayde Van Hyfte finished with 10 in her second game back from a long-term knee injury. Imogen Greenslade logged a career high in rebounds with 11.

The Sun Devils led 21-12 at the end of the first quarter, making 7 of 17 shots and controlling the board with an 18-8 rebounding edge. Harvard made its first two shots of the game, then made only three more out of 17 attempts the rest of the quarter.

The rest of the game was more of the same. ASU opened the third quarter on a 15-0 run and put the game out of reach.

Five takeaways

1. Board dominance

The Sun Devils outrebounded Harvard 61-18, the 61 rebounds still 10 off of a single-game school record. They key to that success was the Sun Devils' transition on offense, which forced the Crimson into a faster tempo and one shot only on many possessions.

"Well, that is the rebounding effort that I've been waiting for," Turner Thorne said. "That was awesome. It's all the difference, you control the boards, you control the game."

ASU rebounded so well without one of its top rebounders, Maggie Besselink, available to play. Besselink is week-to-week with an undisclosed injury.

Turner Thorne said she'd like to see more rebounding from her guards, but that is starting to get better.

2. On the run

Turner Thorne noted that when the Sun Devils get their fastbreak going, opponents have a hard time rebounding against them.

"We've done that with a little success this year, but I thought we did it masterfully (Sunday)," she said. "Just keeping the tempo up so they had to get back. It was definitely a game where it's like 'outwork them, outwork them.'"

Loville said the plan on defense is to fly around and be on the same page.

"We were talking on the court and it definitely helped us," she said. "It was one-and-done and then we were able to get on offense and execute."

3. Three-balls

ASU hit 9 of 19 3-pointers for its best three-point percentage of the season so far, 47.4. They aren't likely to get those kind of open looks from long range when the Pac-12 season starts, but it was a statistic that stood out to Turner Thorne.

She said the Sun Devils took 27 3s on Saturday, which was too many in her opinion. ASU entered the game at 27.7% from three.

4. The 70-point target

Turner Thorne was asked what her goals were for the two games, both wins on Saturday over Texas-San Antonio and Sunday over Harvard.

"To get better. To be a better rebounding team. To score over 70 points, which we fell a bit short (Saturday) but just get our offense going," Turner Thorne said. "Just continue to play better together."

5. Mael delivers

Gilles reached a season high in rebounds, and drew praise from Turner Thorne, who said she continues to be consistent.

Gilles, the Sun Devils' leading rebounder this season, said taking pride in rebounding helped on Sunday.

"This is our house, this is our home, you're not going to get that rebound. That's just point blank, period," Gilles said.

Loville said rebounding was emphasized in previous practices.

"Our team is starting to understand that if you control the boards, you control the game. We are starting to understand that. We have not been doing that this year," Turner Thorne said.

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Loville leads ASU women to blowout win over Harvard