The Arizona State women’s basketball team had a successful time at home, going 2-1 for the week.
ASU (3-2) had a rough 70-59 loss against Grand Canyon at Footprint Center on Thursday, but turned their week around with two straight wins in the Briann January Classic at Desert Financial Arena.
Tyi Skinner and Jalyn Brown combined for 51 points in the 80-73 win against SMU, and the Sun Devils capped the week with a big 79-60 win vs. Oregon State.
Chemistry is showing up
With almost everyone on the team healthy, ASU showed its potential against SMU and Oregon State.
“These two last games, we have a lot to draw from,” coach Natasha Adair said. “It’s clicking right now. This is the momentum we wanted. We have a lot to show from the defensive standpoint.”
Adair added that her team will still have to clean up some things, but she likes the display the Sun Devils have put on in the past two games.
One of the areas that was cleaned up was defending the 3. ASU held SMU and Oregon State to a combined 23.9% from the 3. SMU shot 8-for-23, while Oregon State went 3-for-23.
In the first two games, ASU allowed Jacksonville State to go 7-for-28 from beyond the arc, while Arkansas State tallied 13 3-pointers on 30 attempts. GCU had nine 3-pointers last Thursday.
“It was more about honing our defense and not letting them get hot,” Adair said.
Several players make season debuts vs. GCU
ASU’s roster additions bolstered its lineup against GCU when guard Jazion Jackson and forward Maggie Besselink returned.
Jackson came from Texas Tech, where she suffered a season-ending foot injury before playing any games with the Red Raiders. She replaced guard Kennedy Fauntleroy in the starting five and posted four points. Jackson knocked down a 3-pointer at 6:28 in the second quarter for a 31-22 lead.
Jackson played a big role on the boards against SMU, leading the team with 13 rebounds.
“That was part of the recruiting process because that’s what she does,” Adair said. “She’s a rebounding guard. She also sparks us defensively. A lot of players want to score and that’s what shows up in the box score, but she sets the tone for us defensively.”
Besselink debuted after suffering a season-ending ACL injury on Jan. 19 against Washington State. The graduate forward was expected to play a bigger role last season as she started in 11 of her 12 appearances. But injuries once again put a halt to her career.
Now in her fifth season, Besselink is one of the sparks off the bench and drew four charges against Oregon State.
“Maggie is our glue,” Adair said. “When you talk about the ultimate warrior and fighter, Maggie doesn’t complain. Whatever the role, you’re going to get extreme effort. … She’s relentless, she’s worked for it.”
Against SMU, Besselink came in for Kennedy Basham near the end of the first quarter and drew an offensive charge from Nya Robertson. Brown then knocked down a 3 on the ensuing play to get ASU within two points of SMU.
Looking for consistency in the starting five
Adair praised role players like Besselink and junior forward Hanna Miller in the loss against GCU, but needed more consistency from the starting five.
“I don’t know if it was foul trouble or different things, but we got to put together 40 full minutes,” Adair said.
Brown and Skinner answered Adair’s call against SMU with a big first half. Brown and Skinner combined for 34 points as ASU built a 41-29 lead, accounting for 82.9% of ASU’s scoring.
The two led an 8-0 run as the Sun Devils outscored SMU 27-14 in the second quarter.
One of the bigger moments from the duo came when Brown stole the ball from Ella Brow and then flipped it to Skinner, who got the layup and one for a 39-26 lead with 26 seconds left in the second.
“You saw in the first and the third game, Ice (Brown) was in a little bit of foul trouble,” Skinner said. “We had a lot of rotations and I think we just were trying to figure it out as a team. It wasn’t really that we didn’t think we could do it or other people couldn’t score. We were trying to figure out how we were going to win as a team.”
Injury report
Sophomore Mallory Miller had a cast on her right arm at Thursday’s game, a concerning sight for the team. The 6-foot-4 forward made big strides throughout her freshman season and was expected to make another jump this year. Miller did not appear in the first two games.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: ASU women’s basketball reaping success before week off
