Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN
Following a tough road loss to No. 13 Florida State in Tallahassee, the ASU women’s basketball team returned to action on Monday night at Wells Fargo Arena.
ASU defeated the Idaho Vandals 77-33 in a dominant performance. The Sun Devils had three players in double figures, and they led the entire game from start to finish.
“I am very proud of our team. I thought we responded well from our last game with just a relentless effort,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We were not happy with Florida State. Even though it was kind of just one bad quarter (against FSU), we weren’t playing hard … that’s not who we are.”
After the Florida State loss, it was announced that ASU junior guard Sabrina Haines would miss the entire 2017-18 season with a torn ACL that she sustained in a win against UC Riverside earlier this season. Haines did not play against FSU, and she did not make the trip to Florida.
With the loss of Haines, the Sun Devils are left with just 10 players on their roster. However, Turner Thorne made the most of that roster on Monday night.
All 10 players touched the floor and scored in ASU’s victory. Sophomore forward Jamie Ruden led the way for the Sun Devils, tallying 19 points and six rebounds. The 19-point outburst marked a new career-high for the sophomore from Minnesota.
“I just try to go out there and help, and luckily I was getting open looks in their zone (defense),” Ruden said. “People were finding me really well, so I just kept shooting and it worked out.”
Ruden was 8-14 from the field and recorded her 19 points in just 14 minutes played while coming off of the bench.
“That’s called efficiency,” Turner Thorne said. “Jamie Ruden is definitely one of the most efficient offensive players probably in the country.”
Among others, junior forward Kiana Ibis dropped 16 points and sophomore guard Robbi Ryan had 12 points on 6-8 shooting. Ryan has had back-to-back double digit scoring performances in the absence of Haines.
In addition to Ibis and Ryan, junior center Charnea Johnson-Chapman owned the glass for the Sun Devils. The junior from California grabbed 12 rebounds while putting up four points.
Johnson-Chapman leads ASU in rebounding this season, and she continued her aggressive play against the Vandals.
Throughout the game, ASU continued to break down Idaho’s 2-3 zone defense, and they were in harmony on offense, while holding the Vandals to 24 percent shooting from the field on the other end of the court.
“We knew they were really extended in their zone,” Ibis said. “A really big emphasis was to flash to the middle (of the zone)…it helped us create a lot of our offense.”
ASU outscored Idaho 46-12 on points in the paint, and the Sun Devils dominated the game from the opening tip-off.
With Monday’s win, ASU is now 8-3 with one more game left in non-conference play before the Sun Devils shift their attention to Pac-12 play on Dec. 29.
Until then, ASU will partake in one more non-conference matchup against another legitimate, power-five opponent when the Arkansas Razorbacks enter Wells Fargo Arena on Thursday afternoon.
Arkansas is 8-3 this season, and they have played a variety of difficult opponents including Nebraska and Kansas.
“Arkansas is going to be a better rebounding team coming in. It will be a good test for our transition defense,” Turner Thorne said. “…There is three seasons. There is your preseason, there is your conference season and there is your postseason. We have one last game in our first season and we want to finish it and go home being very happy. We just want to play our best basketball on Thursday afternoon.”
Tipoff between ASU and Arkansas is set for Thursday, Dec. 29 at 2 p.m. MST.
