ASU defeats UCLA for third straight win

Briann January scored 13 of her 17 points in the second half and Dymond Simon scored all 13 of her points in the first half as Arizona State won its third straight game, defeating UCLA 73-67 on Thursday night.

By virtue of the win the Sun Devils clinched the No. 3 seed in next week's Pac-10 Tournament in San Jose.

The Sun Devils shot 44 percent for the game while scoring 20 points off of UCLA's 19 turnovers. Led by juniors Lauren Lacey (11 points) and Sybil Dosty (10 points), ASU also had a 30-20 advantage in points in the paint.

Nina Earl and Tierra Henderson both led UCLA with 12 points.

ASU (19-9, 13-4 Pac-10) controlled the action for much of the first half after taking an early 11-2 lead. A field goal by Kate Engelbrecht gave ASU its largest lead of the half, 27-10 with 10:15 remaining.

The Bruins (14-14, 9-8 Pac-10) used an 11-2 run to cut ASU's lead to eight points, however the Sun Devils would eventually extend back out to a double-digit lead and took a 40-28 lead into the locker room.

In the second half it was the Bruins quickly seizing the initiative, scoring eight of the first 10 points to cut ASU's halftime advantage in half, 42-36. The Sun Devils would extend their advantage back to nine points before another Bruin run later in the half cut the ASU lead to three, 49-46, with just under 11 minutes remaining. The Bruins would get within three points on two other occasions, however would get no closer. After a layup by Earl cut ASU's advantage to 59-56 with just over six minutes left, the Sun Devils went on a 6-0 run to take a 65-56 lead.

ASU closes out the regular season on Saturday (11 a.m. PT/noon MT) when it faces the USC Women of Troy at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. The game will be televised live by Fox Sports Net.