Having opened their season with two dominant home wins over Illinois State and San Jose State, No. 18 ASU women’s basketball knew it would be facing a much different challenge going on the road to take on a talented Marquette team.
As a result, ASU struggled offensively and faltered in its first road test, falling by a final score of 75-63 at Marquette Saturday afternoon.
The Sun Devils (2-1) trailed for most of the game and never were able to find their full rhythm. They were able to cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to one midway through the fourth, but Marquette responded with an explosive 11-2 run to put ASU away.
"I think we knew we were going to have some days like this with this young team," ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "Marquette, I was very nervous about this game, because I know how they are offensively, we were pretty sure any time we had a breakdown they were going to expose us. Give them a ton of credit. They took advantage of a lot of stuff from us. That's kind of where we are as a team right now, I wouldn't say I'm surprised."
Two three-pointers by Natisha Hiedeman – the game’s leading scorer with 23 points – were the spark for the Golden Eagles (3-0) in a game-sealing stretch, as Marquette took advantage of ASU's mistakes to run away with the win.
"A lot of situations to learn from in the fourth quarter," Turner Thorne said. "Fouls, breakdowns on both sides of the floor, this team made us pay for defensive breakdowns."
At the outset of the game, the Sun Devils came out flat offensively as they went down 12-7 early and only led for brief points in the second quarter.
Here are photos from the first quarter! pic.twitter.com/a9XGHXfXkH
— Sun Devil WBB (@SunDevilWBB) November 19, 2016
ASU took a quick 28-27 lead about three minutes into the second, but coughed it up quickly and didn’t score another point in the half, as Marquette entered the break up 33-28.
That said, freshman Robbi Ryan was one of the few bright spots of a lackluster opening frame, putting up 11 first-half points on her way to a team-high 19.
In the third quarter, ASU continued to struggle offensively, but senior Quinn Dornstauder emerged with eight third-quarter points to keep the Sun Devils in it. She finished the game with ten points and eight boards.
Sophie Brunner also had a solid stat line after a slow start, finishing with 13 points and four rebounds.
ASU trailed by as few as two in the final three minutes, but Marquette responded by opening up its biggest lead to that point, 48-40, and would lead 50-42 through three.
"If they would have missed some shots and wouldn't have made some shots, maybe we would have eked it out," Turner Thorne said. "But maybe in the grand scheme of things, exposing us and getting this team to understand how our level of consistency day in and day out is not where it needs to be. That's the way we played today."
The Sun Devils will have a six-day break before getting back on the floor on Black Friday, when they take on No. 6 Maryland at the South Point Thanksgiving Tournament in Las Vegas.
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Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
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