Lady Sun Devils Maintain the Pac-10 Pace with Another Weekend Sweep
In our weekly women’s hoops update, conference leaders Cal and Stanford show no signs of slowing down. It’s a good thing the Sun Devils clamped down defensively and found some offensive balance to pick up their second consecutive weekend sweep.
Don’t miss this week’s men’s hoops update!
Last week (2-0, 12-6 overall, 4-2 Pac-10): ASU 68, UCLA 44; ASU 83, USC 71
What We Learned: The Sun Devils are playing at a high level right now. After losing their first two conference games, they’ve won four straight, including two fine performances last weekend at home against the Los Angeles schools.
ASU has played aggressive and smart on defense during the winning streak, and head coach Charli Turner Thorne couldn’t have drawn up a better blueprint for offensive balance than the one her squad displayed over the weekend. Against UCLA on Thursday, Sun Devils posts Kirsten Thompson, Sybil Dosty and Lauren Lacey combined for 28 points.
Two days later against USC, it was the guards’ turn to shoulder the load; Briann January, Danielle Orsillo and Dymond Simon combined for 52 points. If the Sun Devils can continue to get that kind of offensive balance and combine it with the defense they’ve been playing over the last four games, they’re going to be tough to beat.
Star of the Week: We like what Orsillo’s been doing lately as she’s further proving she’s fully recovered from a knee injury that caused her to miss all but one game of last season. She scored 19 points against the Ladies of Troy, including three 3-pointers.
But Simon (pictured above) had two fantastic all-around games over the weekend. She scored a team-high 14 points against UCLA, with six assists and two steals. Against USC, the point guard scored 19 points, including three 3-pointers of her own, and added four assists and three steals.
What’s Next: Just one game this week, but it’s a big one for state bragging rights: The Sun Devils will play host to Arizona on Saturday. After going through their non-conference slate with a 7-4 record, the Wildcats have dropped six straight Pac-10 contests, including Saturday’s game against UCLA where they only scored 38 points.
Arizona, despite having the conference’s second-leading scorer and leading rebounder, Ify Ibekwe, has struggled to put the ball in the hole all season long; its 56.9 points per game is last in the conference. Considering the way ASU’s defense has been playing lately, this game is a game the Sun Devils should win.
They’ll need to if they hope to maintain pace in the conference race. Stanford and Cal lead the way, two games ahead of ASU.
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This makes everything so cmpolteely painless.