After sweeping Colorado and Utah, the ASU women's basketball team felt good heading into its final two games of the 2013-14 regular season knowing that two wins would clinch the Sun Devils the third seed in the tournament. Unfortunately for the team, the task got a little bit harder.
The No. 20 Sun Devils (22-7, 11-6 Pac-12) fell, 98-90, to Oregon, which outshot ASU from the field, the 3-point arc and the free throw line on the way to the victory.
The Ducks (14-14, 5-12 Pac-12) had three players score over 20 points in the game. Sophomore forward Jillian Alleyne led Oregon with 29 points and 16 rebounds.
ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne and her team knew that Alleyne was the player they could not let dominate, but she found a way to do just that.
"I knew that (Alleyne) was the one player that could really hurt us and we were supposed to be doubling her early and aggressively, but we let her back us in and get layups," Turner Thorne said. "We just had a very poor defensive effort."
Freshman guard Chrishae Rowe scored 25 points for the Ducks and senior guard Ariel Thomas scored 22.
Turner Thorne was not pleased with her team's defensive effort.
"We just didn't bring it, especially in the second half," she said. "We just have to play great position defense without fouling, we need to control the boards and we didn't control the boards. We gave up way too many second shots ... Just too many not good basketball things."
Redshirt senior center Joy Burke led the Sun Devils with 17 points and 10 rebounds, but only scored one point and recorded three fouls in the second half.
Redshirt sophomore guard Katie Hempen added 19 points on 8-16 shooting off the bench.
Turner Thorne put the loss in perspective after the game.
"I'm disappointed for this team because they've had a great season up to now and they've worked really hard, but this loss really hurts us and really hurts their chances of what maybe they could have in the postseason," Turner Thorne said. "This was not the effort you need to have February 28, at this point of the season, you need to be locked in."
The Sun Devils can still earn the third seed in the Pac-12 Tournament with a win Sunday against the Oregon State Beavers with tip-off scheduled for 2 p.m.
Turner Thorne knows what her team has to do from this game.
"We've just got to regroup and go down to Corvallis and get ourselves a W," she said.
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Tonis_The_Tiger
