Anyone who watched the first two games between the Arizona Wildcats and the ASU Sun Devils should have expected a close contest in the opening round of the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament. The question was whether the end result would be different.
It wasn’t. ASU took the win for the third time this season by the score of 54-51.
The opening quarter was strong for the Wildcats, but that was the end of pretty offense. Arizona shot 37.3 percent from the floor and went 3 for 15 from outside. ASU hit
40.4 percent of their shots overall and 16.7 from 3-point distance. The Sun Devils only hit 50 percent of their free throws.
The 3-point futility ultimately ended Arizona’s season. With 8.2 seconds on the clock, the Wildcats inbounded the ball to Sumayah Sugapong. It looked like she had a very brief opening to take the possible tying shot, but she didn’t pull the trigger.
Instead, Sugapong passed the ball to forward Daniah Trammell. Trammell was definitely more open than Sugapong, but she was 0 for 4 from outside coming into this game. It was the second time in the game that Trammell was forced to take an outside shot due to an expiring clock.
Expiring clocks weren’t a problem for ASU. The clock operator reset the shot clock for the Sun Devils twice in the waning seconds when they should not have. The officiating crew did not notice either time.
Arizona sat in a zone for most of the game. It was very effective. Only Heloisa Carrera scored in double figures for the Sun Devils. She had 16 points. Gabby Elliott scored just four, but all nine Sun Devils who got on the court contributed at least two points.
The Wildcats had three players in double figures. Sugapong and Trammel both ended with 12. Lani Cornfield had 10. Seven of the eight Wildcats who played got in the scoring column.
Arizona opened the game on a 10-2 run, but ASU found its way at the 5:48 mark. The Sun Devils used a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game. They went up by as many as four, but Wildcat freshman Molly Ladwig hit a 3 with 39 seconds to go and pulled UA within one at the end of the first quarter.
Arizona cooled off considerably in the second quarter, allowing ASU to go up by as many as six points. The Devils couldn’t hold that lead, though. Once again, a Wildcat 3-pointer made it a one-point game at the end of a period. This one was by Sugapong and cut ASU’s lead to 29-28 at the half.
Fouls weren’t a huge problem for most of the Wildcats, but Nora Francois had some difficulties. She was called for a flagrant foul in the second quarter while going for a rebound. There was no foul called initially, but after ASU’s Marley Washenitz complained to the officials, they reviewed it and said Francois’s follow through was excessive. It would turn out to be an important call for a variety of reasons.
Elliott took the free throws for ASU. She hit one of two and Francois had to go to the bench. The free throw equated to the Sun Devils’ lead at the half.
Francois would once again be called for a flagrant foul with nine minutes to go in the game. While it was her fifth foul anyway, she was ejected and forced to go to the locker room. Last-Tear Poa made both free throws and ASU retained possession. The three made free throws from the official reviews were the winning margin.
Arizona ends the season at 12-18. While they could conceivably get an invitation to the WNIT even with a losing record, head coach Becky Burke said on Tuesday that she wasn’t sure they would accept even if offered.
