(Tempe, AZ) Treasure Hunt and Meg Newman were a two-person wrecking crew on Saturday afternoon at Desert Financial Arena, as the two combined for 34 points and 27 rebounds in the Sun Devil women’s basketball team’s 82-67 win over Prairie View A&M.
Hunt scored a career-best 22 points with nine rebounds, while Newman chimed in with 12 points and 18 rebounds – both career-highs – off the bench to help the Sun Devils put away the pesky Panthers.
It was an 18-8 run that opened the second half and saw the Sun Devils build a 16-point lead for what was once their largest of the game. Up 58-42 with less than four minutes remaining in the third, the Panthers scored eight of the final 10 points of the quarter, slicing ASU’s lead to 60-50 heading into the fourth.
The Sun Devils were sparked by a 22-9 run in the fourth quarter, jumping out to a game-high 23-point lead that silenced the Panthers for good.
“Super proud of our young ladies,” head coach Natasha Adair said. “We had a phenomenal week of prep. What you saw today was just us finishing the job, this was our final exam. We talked about defense, rebounding and the extra effort plays; doing whatever it takes and doing it together. This was a phenomenal team win and we did it together.”
Tyi Skinner, who’s now tallied double-digit scoring efforts in each of ASU’s 11 games this season, scored eight of her 17 points in the fourth quarter and tied her career high with seven assists. She had a pair of three-pointers that bookended the Sun Devils’ fourth quarter scoring.
The Sun Devils were 21-for-25 (84 percent) from the free throw line and outrebounded the Panthers 50-33. They received 24 points from their bench unit, headlined by Newman’s dozen and Trayanna Crisp’s 10.
The Sun Devils went into the half up 40-34, thanks to a 16-5 run that closed out the half. They scored on four of their final five possessions of the half while holding the Panthers scoreless in the final 2:11 of the second quarter.
After a slow offensive start, Newman provided the spark off the bench that allowed the Sun Devils to pick at the Panthers’ lead, which reached as high as eight at one point. Newman had 10 points and nine rebounds in the first half, setting the stage for her eventual career-best effort.
Newman’s 18 boards were the most for a Sun Devil since Ja’Tavia Tapley pulled down 18 on Dec. 6, 2019, against BYU.
“Coming back from this injury, they have really done a great job of being smart with me and figuring out my body,” Newman said, who played a career-high 33 minutes, as well. “Today was like the first day where [the athletic trainers] were like, ‘OK, just let me know how you feel,” and it was fun to be out there that much.”
The Sun Devils shot 47.1 percent from the floor in the first half and outrebounded the Panthers 23-17. A Skinner bucket midway through the second quarter gave the Sun Devils their first lead in nearly 14 minutes. It was part of a pivotal stretch in which they outscored the Panthers 12-2 to take a lead into the break.
The Sun Devils started the contest in similar fashion, slowed by a near 2:30 minute scoring drought that helped the Panthers jump out to an early 10-7 lead. Seven unanswered points saw the Panthers’ lead whittle to just two, making it a 21-19 game after the first.
Solid bench play and the steady scoring from Hunt and Skinner ensured the Sun Devils were in command the rest of the way.
Saturday’s win snapped a three-game losing streak, a sequence of games in which ASU had only seven scholarship players available in each contest. On Saturday, two additional Sun Devils were available to play. Freshman forward Journey Thompson, who missed ASU’s last two games, made her first career start on Saturday, and accounted for 11 points and six rebounds. In addition, freshman guard Jaylah Robinson made her first career appearance after missing the first 10 games.
Next up for the Sun Devils is a trip to Tucson to take on in-state rival Arizona on Dec. 29 (6 p.m. MST) in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.
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