University of Washington
Arizona State
Women's Basketball Falls At ASU, 52-49
January 22, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2011
TEMPE, Ariz. - The stage was set for the comeback. But for the second straight game, the Huskies again let a late rally slip between their fingers.
And so it was Arizona State that celebrated the hard-fought win, a 52-49 decision over the Huskies at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. The loss ensured a two-game sweep in the desert for the Dawgs, who fell to 7-10, 2-6 in the Pac-10.
Now the Huskies return home to Seattle frustrated, but still encouraged by a pair of strong road performances. Against two of the upper-echelon teams in the league, the Huskies stood toe-and-to and showed they would not be intimidated by crowds or physical play. The key going forward is whether the Dawgs can begin to apply some of the lessons learned here in Arizona to the rest of the Pac-10 season.
"I thought our kids worked so hard. They battled," said coach Tia Jackson. "Especially when the odds were against us with the foul trouble. I thought the guards handled the (ASU) pressure as best they could."
Kristi Kingma led the Huskies with 14 points, all in the second-half. Her scoring onslaught re-energized a Huskies group that had struggled with turnovers and foul trouble, two bugaboos that plagued the Dawgs on Thursday in Tucson. Sarah Morton added 10 points while Regina Rogers tallied nine off the bench.
After a scoreless first half, Jackson shifted Kingma to the point, which freed her up from the Sun Devils' relentless pressure defense. This allowed Kingma to use a series of screens from Rogers and Mackenzie Argens to find space, and she responded by burying a series of open jumpers.
"She did a great job of changing pace and getting off those screens," Jackson said. "She just got so hot, and I realized we had to keep her going."
But Kingma didn't have the legs for a final three-pointer in regulation, one that would have tied the game with the Huskies trailing by three. As the clock dwindled down, Kingma sprinted to the right corner, pump-faked and drew contact from Arizona State post Kali Bennett. No call was made and the Sun Devils were able to dribble out the clock.
For the second game in a row, the Huskies' defense did its job in shutting down the opposition's star. This time, the mark was Dymond Simon, who finished with 13 points but made just 5-of-16 shots from the floor. No other Sun Devil scored in double figures, but the team made up for the 33 percent shooting effort by crashing the glass to pull down 20 o-boards. Those allowed the Sun Devils to gain extra possessions, testing the Huskies' defense to come up with stops to match.
Back home, the Huskies have a few extra days to rest and prepare for their top rivalry game of the season - Washington State. The Cougars split in Arizona, inching just ahead of UW in the Pac-10 standings. That also means there will be added incentive for both teams on next Sunday at Alaska Airlines Arena, more than just state bragging rights.
