The ASU women’s basketball team took on the University of California, Irvine on Tuesday. The Sun Devils managed to beat the Anteaters by a score of 69-52 The noon game was supposed to be held at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, but got moved to Weatherup Center due to a power outage caused by a facilities issue.
ASU came out strong in the first quarter, starting out strong with 24-7 lead after one. However, UCI managed to outscore its opponents 22-13 in the second quarter but were still down 37-29 at the half.
UCI did not gain any ground in the third as ASU was able to keep pace scoring 12 points to their 11 in that quarter. Finally, ASU was able to finish things off in the fourth, winning by a final score of 69-52.
For the Sun Devils, senior forward Jade Loville led the offense with 20 points in 31 minutes. She also posted a team-best 26 plus-minus rating. Graduate student forward Mael Gilles also contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds, good for a double-double.
On UCI’s side of things, graduate student forward Naomi Hunt led the way offensively with 14 points in 30 minutes of court time. Statistically, things got ugly for the Anteaters as not a single player had a positive plus-minus rating.
For team comparison, ASU out-rebounded UCI 43-28. ASU shot 40.6% from inside the paint and 34.8% from behind the arc, while UCI put up percentages of 35.4 and 42.9 from those same distances.
The Anteaters had more free throw attempts than its opponent, but only shot 80% from the line while the Sun Devils made 90% of their free throws.
After today’s win, ASU will finish with a non-conference record of 7-5. The Sun Devils will open Pac-12 play next Friday, Dec. 31 against UCLA in Los Angeles, Calif.
For UC Irvine, they will stay in Arizona to finish out the rest of their non-conference schedule. The team now drops to a record of 5-5 before taking on Grand Canyon University on Dec. 23 before beginning Big West play against CSUN on Dec. 30.
Reach the reporter at ahoppes1@asu.edu and follow @aviannahoppes on Twitter.
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