ASU women's basketball used a strong third quarter and a balanced scoring effort to defeat Washington State 67-61 on Sunday afternoon in Tempe.
After suffering its worst offensive performance of the season against the Cougars, the Sun Devils' offense rebounded by shooting 42% from the field and having all 10 players in the game score points.
Head coach Charli Turner Thorne said the team talked together after Friday's loss to address the need of increasing aggression against Washington State on the upcoming Sunday game.
"It just didn't make any sense how tense everyone was," Turner Thorne said. "I thought they did a great job in that we were the more aggressive team, which is always the team that wins, in my opinion."
Turner Thorne hopes Sunday's strong shooting performance is a sign of good things to come for her team after struggling in that aspect for much of the season.
"We actually can shoot the ball, and I'm hoping that it will even just get better from this moment forward, if we can kind of just stay centered in where we were at today," Turner Thorne said.
Despite ASU building a 51-36 lead after three quarters, Washington State fought back, cutting its deficit to just three points late in the fourth quarter.
But the Sun Devils kept the Cougars at bay, hitting 10 straight free throws to end the game.
Freshman guard Jaddan Simmons led ASU's offense with 15 points and shot 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Simmons said Sunday's improved offensive performance was a byproduct of the team sharing the ball, with the team totaling 12 assists.
"Just playing off of each other, and actually running the floor, trying to get more transition looks is really how our offense works," Simmons said.
Junior guard Taya Hanson, who finished the game with 12 points, said she was excited to see her team share the ball and have a balanced scoring performance.
"I love seeing my teammates succeed," Hanson said. "It makes the whole game easier when we have that balanced score sheet because ... everyone contributes, whether it's on scoring or on rebounding and steals."
ASU will now hit the road for its final road trip of the regular season, playing next against Stanford on Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at ltochter@asu.edu and follow @Leo_Toch on Twitter.
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