Devils beat Wildcats – in Tucson


Becca Tobin scored 15 of her 19 points in the second half as Arizona State won its fourth consecutive game, defeating in-state rival Arizona 73-67 on Sunday.

Danielle Orsillo scored 16 points and Tenaya Watson added a career-high 14 points for the Sun Devils, who defeated Arizona for the ninth consecutive time. Tobin, who tied her career high in scoring, narrowly missed a double-double as she also grabbed nine rebounds to go along with four assists and two steals. Also nearly accounting for a double-double was Kayli Murphy, who scored nine points to go along with 11 rebounds.

Trailing 35-31 at the half, Arizona State opened the second half with an 8-2 run to take a 40-37 lead.

Later in the half, with the score knotted at 44-44, the Sun Devils took control of the game with an 11-0 run within a span of just 2:28. Orsillo, who scored 12 of her points in the second half, had seven points during the scoring burst. Watson keyed the run on the defensive end as she had two blocks and two steals. For the game Watson would go on to set career bests in both blocks (4) and steals (4)

The Wildcats (9-8, 3-4 Pac-10) would get within three points on several occasions in the final three minutes, however each time the Sun Devils would respond to make it a two-possession game. Helping the Sun Devils come away with the victory was their ability to connect on all eight of their free throws in the final 47 seconds. For the game, ASU converted 77 percent of its free throw attempts (20-26).

Ify Ibekwe (25 points) and Davellyn Whyte (22 points) combined for 47 points to lead Arizona.

ASU returns to action on Thursday night (7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT) when it travels to the Bay Area to take on the second-ranked Stanford Cardinal. The game can be heard live on The Fan AM1060.