With ASU 64-61 game with under a minute remaining, Skinner delivered the final dagger with a jumper to make it a two possession game, 66-61. The Sun Devil defense was stout down the stretch, allowing just six points in the final three minutes of play, and Skinner and Jaddan Simmons sank four late free throws to cement the win.
“We had 23 offensive rebounds, 23 second-chance points, 26 bench points,” head coach Natasha Adair said postgame. “That means we’re growing and we’re getting deeper and deeper as a team. … Our group was poised all the way through. We made free throws down the stretch, – 14-for-20 – we made all the plays that we needed to win.”
The Eagles used a pair of buckets to cut the Sun Devil lead to one with just over two minutes remaining, but Meg Newman connected with a cutting Trayanna Crisp, who laid it in for a 62-59 lead. It was the theme of the fourth quarter – and the game at-large – as the Sun Devils were wonderful in the face of adversity.
Newman, Crisp and Isadora Sousa were huge contributors off the bench, teaming up for 16 points and 21 rebounds. The energy from the second-unit complemented the heroics of Skinner, who shot 9-of-18 from the floor and hauled in five boards of her own.
Sousa averaged 12.4 minutes and 3.4 rebounds per game so far this season, but erupted for a game- and career-high 12 boards in 27 minutes against the Eagles.
Skinner, who entered play as the team’s leading scorer at 19 points per game, has now scored 24 points in three consecutive contests.
“Tyi’s a champion,” Adair said. “She knows what it takes. But, she feeds off her teammates. She knows she didn’t do it by herself. It took everyone else’s effort, but in the moments where she had the ball in her hand and she had to make the gutsy play, the winning play, she was confident enough to do so. I’m proud of her.”
Newman was the catalyst of the Sun Devils’ 8-0 run early in the third quarter run, as she muscled her way to offensive rebounds and put-backs on back-to-back possessions to put the Sun Devils up 45-37. Late in the quarter with the ASU up 48-41, the Eagles went on a 7-0 run to close out the third quarter to tie the game at 48-48 going to the final quarter.
Newman finished just shy of a double-double, adding a career-high 10 points and eight rebounds – seven of which came on the offensive glass.
The Sun Devils took a slim but hard-earned one-point advantage into the half, thanks to a boost provided by the team’s second-unit. Crisp had established a new career high in scoring with nine points going into the break and Newman had five pivotal offensive rebounds to clip what was once an American 16-8 lead.
The Eagles got after it early and often right from the start, jumping out to an early 20-17 lead after one. Though the Sun Devils went into the half up 34-33, the Eagles had connected on 48.3 percent from the floor and led for 14:02 in the first 20 minutes of play.
The Sun Devils will continue play at the Goombay Splash on Saturday afternoon, when they meet No. 7 Notre Dame with tip-off slated for 2:15 p.m. MST.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Griffin Fabits
Click on Logo
