The Arizona State women’s basketball team has confidently entered its first season in the Big 12.
The Sun Devils had a rocky nonconference schedule, going 6-7 and losing to just one ranked school.
However, ASU (8-8, 2-2) turned a switch after the holiday break.
ASU’s 73-67 nonconference win over Penn launched a three-game win streak, which included two wins in the Big 12. The Sun Devils dominated Texas Tech with a 79-61 win on Jan. 1 and played well at Houston in a 69-60 win on Jan. 4.
The Sun Devils had an opportunity to earn their fourth-straight win against Iowa State on Wednesday, but couldn’t catch up to the Cyclones in the 90-83 loss.
The loss showed the Sun Devils where they’re at in the Big 12. More advanced than the worst teams in the conference, but not there yet to beat the better teams.
Some good and some bad against Iowa State
ASU had one more conference win than Iowa State before Wednesday’s game, but the Cyclones had losses to Utah and Oklahoma State — two of the best teams in the conference.
Those gaps showed up in the first quarter against Iowa State when ASU locked in on leading scorer Audi Crooks but left all the wings open. The Cyclones exploited those mistakes and went 8-for-10 on 3s.
ASU made the game close in the second half and made it a one-possession game as late as 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter. But some late fouls gave Iowa State the cushion it needed to win.
“When we talk about competing and fighting until the end and where this team is building and going,” head coach Natasha Adair said. “We don’t like moral victories, but this team is going to win a lot of games playing as hard as we did. I don’t want to take that from them.”
The Big 12 has four ranked teams and even though Iowa State isn’t one of them, the Cyclones have one of the best post players with Crooks. The 6-foot-3 center is difficult to guard as she dominates the paint, but Adair tasked center Nevaeh Parkinson and power forward Kennedy Basham to stop her.
Both did a tremendous job in one of their biggest tests this season. The two held her to 20 points on 9-of-19 shooting and three rebounds. Crooks had averaged 30 points and 8.7 rebounds in her previous three Big 12 games.
After allowing two easy layups from Crooks in the first quarter, Basham and Parkinson held her to one point in the second quarter. Basham also blocked two of Crooks’ three shot attempts.
Sun Devils building confidence
“It’s a confidence booster. I’m not taking anything away from Audi, she’s one of the top posts in the country. We know that. But I thought we held our own,” Adair said. “People talk about Audi, but we talk about Vaeh (Parkinson) and KB (Basham). With KB at 6’7”, (Crooks) hadn’t seen anything like her.”
Adair added that this performance will force teams to gameplan for both her post players.
ASU’s starting five has undergone several changes throughout the season. Guard Jyah Lovett went from being a spark off the bench to the starting five. Lovett has started in six-straight games, averaging 14.7 points since her first start on Dec. 17 against San Francisco.
Last year’s leading scorer Jalyn Brown has missed three games and has been coming off the bench. When in the game, Brown has been effective and has averaged 17 points in three games in the Big 12. She scored 22 points against Utah on Dec. 21, but was out until Saturday’s game against Houston. She scored nine points in 22 minutes and had four fouls. Against Iowa State, she led with 20 points.
The Sun Devils have Baylor at Desert Financial Arena on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., which will be a tough test. The Bears won 81-76 in overtime against Arizona on Wednesday.
Next weekend will be the hardest road trip of the season with the two Kansas schools. ASU will face Kansas (11-4, 1-3) on Jan. 16 and No. 12 Kansas State (16-1, 4-0) on Jan. 19. ASU’s return to Tempe won’t be any easier after that either. The Sun Devils will face No. 17 West Virginia on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
However, ASU isn’t shying away from the tough parts of the Big 12.
“I know this team works very hard. We don’t have to ask people to put that battery in our back,” Brown said. “We have that confidence already from the work we put in. When we’re getting in the heat of things and the moment is getting really stiff, we’re already prepared. It’s go time.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State women’s basketball confident as Big 12 schedule rolls on
