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Women's basketball defeats Colorado, 60-47


February 13, 2012

Janae Fulcher (16 points) and Alex Earl (career-high 14 points) came off the bench to combine for 30 points to lead the Arizona State women's basketball team to a 60-47 win over Colorado.

Kali Bennett added 10 points for the Sun Devils (16-8, 7-6 Pac-12), who snapped a three-game losing streak.

ASU, which came into the game ranked first in the Pac-12 in scoring defense (52.9 ppg), came through with another solid defensive effort on Saturday as it held Colorado (16-8, 5-8 Pac-12) more than 16 points below its scoring average (63.2 ppg).

The Sun Devils, who outrebounded Colorado 43-25, scored 26 points off 24 Colorado turnovers and used a 15-6 advantage on the offensive boards to score 13 second chance points.

Fulcher was 7-9 from the floor and scored 10 of her points in the second half while Earl was a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line. Kimberly Brandon, ASU's leading scorer (10.5 ppg) did not score in the first half, but came back to score eight points in the second half while also grabbing eight rebounds for the game.

Leading 29-23 at the break, the Sun Devils came out and started the second half with a 14-6 run to take a 43-29 lead. A 6-0 run later in the half swelled ASU's advantage to 18 points, 51-33, its largest lead of the game.

At the same time they were building their 18-point lead, the Sun Devils put the clamps on Colorado's offense as they limited the Buffaloes to 3-12 shooting while forcing 10 turnovers over the first 13:23 of the second half.

Colorado would counter with a 12-1 run over a three-minute stretch to get within seven points, 52-45, with 3:16 left, however the Sun Devils would reel off five unanswered points to build their lead back up to 57-45 with 1:40 left. The Buffaloes would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the game.

Chucky Jeffery, who came into the game as the Pac-12's seventh-leading scorer (15.4 ppg), led Colorado with 10 points (3-12 FGs).

The Sun Devils return to action next week when they play their final two home games of the 2011-12 season against Washington (Thurs., at 6:30 p.m.) and Washington State (Sat., at 2 p.m.).