Women's basketball travels to face Washington schools

February 17, 2011

<a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/asu/sports/w-bas…; target="_blank">Game Notes in PDF Format</a><separator></separator>Washington Online Coverage: <a href="javascript:window.open('http://thesundevils.cstv.com/gametracker/launch/?event=906474&schoo…; | <img src="http://graphics.collegesports.com/graphics/allaccess/audio.gif" alt> <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/allaccess/?media=206553" target="_blank">Live Audio</a><separator></separator>Washington State Online Coverage: <a href="javascript:window.open('http://thesundevils.cstv.com/gametracker/launch/?event=911178&schoo…; | <img src="http://graphics.collegesports.com/graphics/allaccess/audio.gif" alt> <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/allaccess/?media=206552" target="_blank">Live Audio</a><separator></separator> <separator></separator>UP NEXT The Arizona State women's basketball team continues its current three-game road trip this week when it travels to the Pacific Northwest to take on Washington (Thurs., 7 p.m. PT/8 p.m. MT) and Washington State (Sat., 1 p.m. PT/2 p.m. MT).<separator></separator>The Sun Devils (14-8, 6-6 Pac-10) come into Thursday's game in fourth place in the Pac-10 standings. ASU trails third-place USC (15-8, 7-5 Pac-10) by one game in the league standings and leads California (14-10, 6-7 Pac-10) and Washington State (8-17, 6-7 Pac-10), which are both tied for fifth place, by one-half game. After beginning the season 3-2 the Sun Devils went on a seven-game winning streak, which included a 79-66 win over current No. 10 DePaul and a 2-0 start in Pac-10 play. ASU then traveled to the Bay Area for its first Pac-10 road trip where it fell to both Cal and Stanford. Since then the Sun Devils have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games (4-4).<separator></separator>Most recently the Sun Devils were defeated by Arizona (61-73) last Sunday in Tucson. <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/simon_dymond01.html">D… Simon</a>, who missed ASU's prior two games after not being medically cleared following a concussion at USC on Jan. 29, returned to the starting lineup and led the Sun Devils with 21 points while <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/tobin_becca00.html">Be… Tobin</a> nearly had a double-double after tallying 12 points and nine rebounds.<separator></separator>Simon's 3-pointer gave the Sun Devils a 47-45 lead with 10:20 remaining, however Arizona would respond with an 18-6 run to take control of the game.<separator></separator>Thursday's game is a rematch of last month's contest in Tempe, which was won by the Sun Devils 52-49. <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/simon_dymond01.html">D… Simon</a> scored 13 points, including a late free throw and <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/bennett_kali00.html">K… Bennett</a> blocked a 3-point shot with seven seconds left to help the Sun Devils get the win.<separator></separator>Washington (10-12, 5-8 Pac-10) has won three of its last five contests with the two defeats during that stretch coming to Oregon State (46-51) and at No. 3 Stanford (52-62). The 62 points Washington allowed against the Cardinal tied the fewest number of points Stanford has scored this season while the 10-point margin of defeat was the smallest of any school against Stanford in Pac-10 play. Six of Washington's 12 losses this season have been by five points or less. The Huskies are led by junior G/F Kristi Kingma, who is first in the Pac-10 in 3-point FGs made (2.8 per game) and fourth in both scoring (16.3 ppg) and 3-point FG percentage (.425).<separator></separator>Thursday's game is the second in a stretch that has the Sun Devils playing five of seven games on the road to close out the regular season. Following this weekend's games, ASU will host USC and No. 9 UCLA next week before concluding the regular season in Oregon where it will face the Ducks and Beavers.   RADIO Thursday's game can be heard live on The Fan AM 1060. Pre-game coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Valley. Veteran broadcaster and the state of Arizona's 2010 Broadcaster of the Year Jeff Munn is in his seventh season as the voice of ASU women's basketball.<separator></separator>WHAT TO LOOK FOR • ASU has won 73 percent of its Pac-10 contests (74-28) since the 2005-06 season. • Although Washington leads the all-time series with ASU 27-25, the Sun Devils have dominated the series of late having won 14 of the last 17 meetings, including 12 of the last 13. Last season the Huskies snapped a 10-game losing streak to the Sun Devils with a 62-56 victory in Seattle. The Sun Devils won the rematch in Tempe, 67-61 (OT). In the first meeting of 2010-11 <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/simon_dymond01.html">D… Simon</a> scored six of her team-high 13 points during a 9-2 run in the second half to help the Sun Devils overcome a four-point deficit on their way to a 52-49 win. • ASU is 12-2 this season when it has outrebounded the opposition (2-6 when it hasn't). The only contests ASU has lost when it had more rebounds were vs. Washington State (Jan. 20) and at UCLA (Jan. 27). ASU is also 11-1 in games it has led at the half. • ASU is 4-0 this season in games decided by three points or less. In those contests ASU has shown a trend of stepping up when it matters most as it has shot 56 percent in the last five minutes of those games while limiting the opposition to 34 percent. And speaking of stepping up, senior F <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/tobin_becca00.html">Be… Tobin</a> is shooting 62 percent from the field and 93 percent from the line in the second half of Pac-10 games. • The Sun Devils are No. 3 in the Pac-10 in offensive rebounds per game (15.5 o-rpg). Junior F <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/brandon_kimberly00.htm… Brandon</a> is fourth in the Pac-10 averaging 2.8 offensive rebounds per game. • ASU is currently second in the Pac-10 in free throw shooting percentage (.709). <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/simon_dymond01.html">D… Simon</a> is third in the Pac-10 in free throw shooting percentage (.798). The Sun Devils are shooting nearly 77 percent from the line in their last five games. • ASU has held the opposition to 56 or fewer points 10 times this season. The Sun Devils have held five of their last eight opponents five or more points below their scoring average. • ASU has had 15 or fewer turnovers eight times this season with six of those instances coming in its last 12 games. ASU tied its season low with 13 turnovers vs. Washington. (Jan. 22). • Currently with 87 career blocks, <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/tobin_becca00.html">Be… Tobin</a> needs two more blocks to pass former Sun Devil <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/dosty_sybil00.html">Sy… Dosty</a> (2008-09) for third place on ASU's all-time list. • ASU began the week No. 35 in the NCAA's most recent RPI standings. The Sun Devils have a pair of Top 35 RPI wins (DePaul - currently No. 11 and USC - currently No. 25). Five of ASU's eight losses are to teams in the top 12 of the RPI -- Tennessee (No. 3), Stanford (2x - No. 6), UCLA (No. 7) and Florida State (No. 12).

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