( Los Angeles, CA) The Sun Devil women’s basketball team was unable to match the offensive output of No. 10 USC in an 81-63 loss to the Trojans on Friday night.
Sophomore Jalyn Brown collected her 10th 20-point game of the season with a team-high 24 points. Trayanna Crisp scored 17 points to go with a team-high five assists and Jaddan Simmons added 12 points for the Sun Devils, who got within seven points early in the third quarter after trailing by as many as 19 in the first half only to see the Trojans quickly seize back command of the game.
Journey Thompson led ASU in rebounds with eight, her eighth game with seven or more rebounds, while Kadidia Toure came off the bench to score eight points.
USC’s JuJu Watkins scored 25 of her game-high 31 points in the second half to help the Trojans improve to 17-4 (7-4 Pac-12).
ASU (10-13, 2-9) was tremendous from the foul line where it made 87.5 percent of its attempts (14-16).
The Trojans started the game scoring nine of the first 11 points to take a seven-point lead after a layup by Watkins.
The Sun Devils responded with five straight points – two free throws by Simmons and a 3-pointer by Crisp – to get within four points.
After ASU’s response to USC’s early success, there was little evidence to suggest the game was about to get away from the Sun Devils. A Trojan 3-pointer with 3:48 remaining started an 11-2 USC blitz to close out the quarter.
The Sun Devils did not reach a double-digit total on the scoreboard until Simmons’ basket cut USC’s lead to 16 after the Trojans scored the first five points of the second quarter to take a 27-9 lead.
The trademark resilience the Sun Devils have displayed all season came to the forefront as the second quarter progressed. ASU not only started to create offense in a variety of ways, but on the other end was able to flummox the USC attack.
Simmons, Crisp and Brown scored five points each and Toure came off the bench to add four points as the Sun Devils would go on to outscore USC 19-16 in the second quarter.
Defensively, the Trojans lost the key to the basket as they missed 10 straight shots at one point.
After trailing by as many as 19 points, ASU whittled USC’s lead down to 10 after Toure’s jumper with 17 seconds left in the first half.
The Sun Devils got even closer, trimming USC’s lead to single digits after Crisp’s 3-pointer in the opening moments of the third quarter made the count 38-31.
As fast as the Sun Devils got back into game, they lost their grasp of it just as quickly as the Trojans – in fewer than three minutes – reclaimed a firm grip of the contest by outscoring ASU 10-2 to take a commanding lead once again, 50-33, with 6:14 remaining.
The Sun Devils would cut the lead to 11 once more but were not able to get any closer.
The Sun Devils conclude an unforgiving stretch of playing seven of nine games on the road on Sunday (1 p.m. MST) when they play at No. 9 UCLA.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Steve. Rodriguez
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