ASU women's basketball falls at Washington

The Arizona State women's basketball team's losing streak to start the Pac-10 portion of its season extended to three games on Thursday night. Washington senior guard Sami Whitcomb scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Huskies to a 62-56 win over the Sun Devils.

"It's very frustrating," ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said following the game. "This is unchartered territory for us. We talked about the importance of teamwork and working together and playing together, but we had too many lapses.

"I thought we played a tough preseason schedule to prepare us for Pac-10s. We played through things and now we are not doing that at all. We are just going to stay positive and keep coaching this group."

Junior Becca Tobin scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Sun Devils while senior Kayli Murphy added 11.

The Sun Devils (8-6, 0-3 Pac-10) spent much of final 20 minutes fighting their way uphill after Tenaya Watson and Tobin scored the first two field goals of the second half to tie the score at 34-34. The Huskies (7-6, 2-1 Pac-10) would respond by scoring the next six points before sophomore guard Alex Earl hit a 3-pointer to cut Washington's lead in half 40-37. The Huskies would score nine of the next 14 points capped by a 3-pointer by Whitcomb which gave the Huskies a 49-42 lead with 5:45 remaining.

The Sun Devils would get as close as two after a steal and a layup by Watson cut Washington's lead to 54-52 with 2:45 left. However the Huskies would score eight of the next 10 points to put the game out of reach.

The first 20 minutes featured six ties and six lead changes as neither team was able to take control early. A jumper by Washington junior guard Christina Rozier at the 11-minute mark gave the Huskies a six-point lead, 19-13, the largest lead for either team in the first half. The Sun Devils would respond with a 12-3 run to take a 25-22 lead. It appeared that ASU would go into the half down by a single point, however Whitcomb hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the Huskies into the locker room with a 34-30 lead.

ASU's inside game of Tobin (9 points), Murphy (8 points) and sophomore Kali Bennett (6 points) combined for 23 of ASU's 30 first-half points.

ASU closes out its road trip to the state of Washington on Saturday (2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT) when it travels to Pullman, Wash., to face Washington State. The game can be heard live on The Fan AM 1060.