Nobody ever said lucky No. 7 in a row had to be the prettiest win.
The ASU women’s basketball team didn’t play its best game Saturday afternoon at Washington, but a huge 31-12 run that overlapped the first and second halves was more than enough for the Sun Devils (15-6, 7-2 Pac-10) to notch an 80-64 win.
“There are no easy games in the Pac-10, especially on the road,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said.
“To be able to go away and kind of be in control of both games in the second half [against Washington State on Thursday and against UW] I think was a really good thing.”
The victory extended the Sun Devils’ winning streak to seven games, while UW’s program-worst losing streak was pushed to eight games.
ASU has also won 23 of its last 26 conference road games.
For the first time in nearly a month, the Sun Devils came out of the tunnel flat and allowed the Huskies (5-14, 1-8 Pac-10) to take an early 6-2 lead that held for most of the first half.
“If you ask the players, I don’t know if they would admit that they were thinking about [UW’s] record,” Turner Thorne said. “I hesitate to accuse them of that, because we learned that there are no easy games.
I know that they know that, and at the same time, it does seem like we just weren’t totally quite ready those first few minutes.”
ASU tied the game at 15 on a pair of free throws by senior center Sybil Dosty at the 7:50 mark, then took its first lead of the game when a layup by freshman forward Kimberly Brandon made the score 19-17 with 6:50 to go in the period.
Just more than a minute later, the Sun Devils regained the lead they would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
ASU ended the half on a 20-10 run, capped by a jumper by junior guard Dymond Simon as the halftime buzzer sounded that made the score 39-29 at the break.
“After the first two minutes, they got themselves going, which a veteran team does,” Turner Thorne said.
“We settled in [and] we were working hard on defense. We were a little more patient on offense, and that’s when we got to start playing our game.”
The Sun Devils continued that momentum at the start of the second half, building a 51-31 advantage on a hook shot by senior center Kirsten Thompson with 15:25 to play.
But then UW junior forward Sami Whitcomb went to work and tried to bring the Huskies back virtually by herself.
Whitcomb scored 17 of the Huskies’ next 28 points — including a trio of long 3-pointers — that cut the Sun Devils’ lead to 67-59 with 5:58 to go.
“We had the unenviable situation of playing shooters the game after they didn’t shoot well,” Turner Thorne said. “That kid [Whitcomb], with a hand in her face, was draining 25-foot [3-pointers] against us, and you have to give them some credit. They were bringing everything they had to ... pull the upset and get back on track.”
Another 3-pointer by Whitcomb got UW within nine at the 3:40 mark, but that was the last time UW would score while the Sun Devils hit their free throws down the stretch.
“We stayed with things and did a good job of just kind of staying poised and answering back [during UW’s run],” Turner Thorne said. “Obviously, I was a little beside myself that we weren’t switching out more aggressively and that we still had people giving [Whitcomb] space [to shoot]. We are going to re-address how you play a shooter.”
Simon scored 13 of her 17 points in the first half and also dished out six assists. Also in the backcourt, senior Briann January had 12 points and three steals, while junior Danielle Orsillo scored 11 and added five rebounds.
“Dymond, especially, just did a tremendous job just shredding their press and delivering the ball to people,” Turner Thorne said. “That was outstanding and I think a highlight [of the game].”
However, January left the game late in the second half after rolling her left ankle when she stepped on Whitcomb’s foot while guarding her. Turner Thorne said January had first tweaked that same ankle last week in practice and that her status is day-to-day.
Dosty also narrowly missed her second-straight double-double, scoring 13 points and pulling down nine rebounds.
“We’re at our best when we have a balanced scoring attack,” Turner Thorne said. “We don’t want to just rely on Dymond and Bri and Danielle. Our posts are good, and we need that complement of them. When we have that, we score really well.”
Whitcomb finished the game with a career-high 29 points and added five rebounds and four steals.
Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu.
