(Las Vegas, NV) The Sun Devil women’s basketball team put forth a remarkable effort, but in the end came up short in a 71-60 loss to Utah in the first round of the final Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The Sun Devils (11-20) led by two after one quarter, were within four points at the half and – but for a fluky sequence in the final seconds of the third quarter – had a chance to be within two possessions entering the final 10 minutes.
Trayanna Crisp led ASU with 19 points, Jalyn Brown had 15 and Jaddan Simmons and Isadora Sousa scored seven points each. Mallory Miller (six points), Simmons and Brown tied for the team lead in rebounds with five boards each. Simmons also paced ASU in assists (four) and steals (four).
The Sun Devils scored 15 points off the 17 turnovers they forced. On the flip side, they were outrebounded 39-26 and the Utes (22-9) had a 40-26 advantage in points in the paint.
Led by Crisp, who had seven points in the opening quarter, the Sun Devils led by as many as seven after Crisp’s 3-pointer with three minutes remaining.
Utah’s Ines Vieira (12 points) and Matty Wilke (10 points) combined for 22 points in the first half. Half those points came in the second quarter when the Utes outscored ASU 19-13 allowing Utah to take a 34-30 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, the Utes connected on 54.5 percent (6-11) of their shots and were 87.5 percent (7-8) from the free throw line.
After Journey Thompson’s layup got the Sun Devils within two points, 40-38, with 4:07 left, the Utes went on a 9-2 run to go up 49-40 with under two minutes remaining.
Miller’s 3-pointer with 34 seconds cut ASU’s deficit to six. It was at this point when arguably the game’s most important sequence took place. After a steal by Simmons, ASU had a chance to get even closer going into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, Brown’s jumper was off the mark. As the final seconds ticked off, it appeared ASU would be going to the fourth quarter within six points. As the buzzer was about to sound, Vieira launched a shot from beyond half court that swished through the net and just like that the Sun Devils were down by nine points.
The momentum created by Vieira’s buzzer-beating triple carried over into the fourth quarter as the Utes took their first double-digit lead in the opening seconds of the final frame. They eventually extended their lead to 14, 63-49.
Determined not to go down without a fight, ASU scored the next five points to get back within single digits, 63-54.
The Sun Devils got within nine points two more times but could not get any closer as the Utes answered with points on the opposite end in each instance.
Alissa Pili scored nine of her game-high 20 points in the final period to help the Utes advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal round.
In defeat, the Sun Devils were once again excellent in taking care of the basketball as they had only 11 turnovers. ASU concluded the season averaging only 12.4 turnovers per game. Only head coach Natasha Adair‘s first Sun Devil squad in 2022-23 (12.3) and the 2017-18 Sun Devils (11.7) had fewer turnovers.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Steve Rodriguez
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