(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
Arizona State continued its impressive play on Sunday against an undefeated Northwestern squad in the final game of the ASU Classic, winning 88-75 with help from sophomore forward Sophie Brunner.
Brunner had herself a day, tallying 24 points and 13 rebounds, giving her yet another double-double on an impressive year. ASU’s offensive game plan was to attack and feed the ball to the paint, and Brunner’s day displays how well that was executed. Quinn Dornstauder was also doing work in the paint, tallying nine points and nine rebounds before she fouled out.
Northwestern had just come off scoring 92 points against Eastern Illinois, and hoped to continue the success, but Nia Coffey’s 22 points weren’t enough to keep pace with the Sun Devils. Production from Maggie Lyon and Lauren Douglas kept it close at points for the Wildcats but all and all, it was their defense that failed them. Northwestern failed to prevent ASU’s offense from getting points in the paint, and even when they did, ASU was able to swing it out and hit a shot from beyond the arc.
What really helped the Sun Devils pull away in this game were some well-timed threes by Elisha Davis. Mid first half, Davis hit two threes in a row to make it a ten point game in ASU’s favor. These threes were just six points out of 16 on the day for Davis, making her one of the four ASU players to hit double figures on the night.
In this win, the Sun Devils did commit a lot of fouls, something they’ll need to work on going forward. Quinn Dornstauder and Katie Hempen both fouled out, while Kelsey Moos and Brunner were in foul trouble by the end of the game. ASU also committed 21 turnovers, causing them to have a -4 turnover ratio in this game. There were some poorly timed passes on offense, and just some miscues overall.
ASU has a week off before they play Yale on December 28th. Tipoff is at 2:30 PM MST at Wells Fargo Arena.
