Sun Devil women's basketball works overtime to defeat Arizona
The "Duel in the Desert" proved to be nothing short of dramatic as the Arizona State women's basketball team downed the Arizona Wildcats, 81-77, in a double-overtime thriller, Feb. 19.
Promise Amukamara (21 points), Joy Burke (18 points) and Haley Videckis (18 points) all had career highs for the Sun Devils (12-15, 4-11 Pac-12). Amukamara, who went 9-13 from the floor, came up with several clutch baskets while playing a career-high 40-plus minutes. Burke, who went 4-4 from the line, also added 10 rebounds, her third consecutive game with 10-plus boards.
Veterans Janae Fulcher (10 points, six rebounds), and Micaela Pickens (11 points, nine rebounds, six assists) rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Sun Devils.
On the other side of the floor, Arizona's Davelynn Whyte had the Wildcats' first triple-double in the program's history, scoring 31 points to go along with 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
The Sun Devils scored the game's first four points and 12 of the game's first 16 to take a 12-4 lead a little more than five minutes into the game.
The Wildcats (12-14, 4-11) would use an 11-3 run later in the half to draw even, 20-20, following Cheshi Poston's layup with 9:19 left in the half.
The Wildcats then tested ASU for the next four minutes; tying the score on three other occasions before a three-pointer by Amukamara put the Devils up by four with 3:28 remaining in the first half.
Arizona would pull within one in the final two minutes, but ASU ultimately took a four-point lead into the locker room.
Trailing by five points less than 90 second into the second half, the Wildcats went on a 15-4 run to take their largest lead of the game, 48-42, with 13 minutes remaining.
Down by five with more than 11 minutes left, the Sun Devils came up with an 11-0 run in the span of 4:30 to take a 58-52 lead. Burke (6 points) and Videckis (5 points) accounted for all 11 points during the scoring run.
Up by five, 63-58 with 1:52 left, the Sun Devils were not able to keep the Wildcats from getting back into the game as Arizona reeled off five straight to tie the game at 63-63 with 69 seconds left.
A layup by Amukamara put the Devils back up by two, but Whyte would respond with a layup of her own to force the game into overtime.
ASU scored the first two baskets of the first overtime to take a 69-65 lead. Once again, however, Arizona was able to come back as it scored the next six points to go up 71-69 with 37 seconds left. Amukamara would see to it that the Sun Devils were not going down without a fight as she scored on a layup up with 18 seconds left to tie the score and send the game into a second overtime.
It would take fewer than three minutes of the second overtime for the two teams to score as many combined points (12) as they had in the entire first overtime. Back and forth they went until, with the scored tied at 77-77, a jumper by Pickens put ASU up for good, 79-77 with 59 seconds left. Fulcher then scored on a layup with 23 seconds left to put the finishing touches on the win.
Tuesday night's game was the first of two between the Sun Devils and the Wildcats this week. The rematch will take place on Sunday (1 p.m. MT) at Wells Fargo Arena in a game that can be seen live on Pac-12 Networks and heard live on The Fan AM 1060. Tickets for the game can be purchased by contacting the Sun Devil ticket office at 480-727-0000.
Notes
• The Sun Devils had a season-high 24 assists. It's the 11th time this season ASU has had 15 or more assists in a game. Adrianne Thomas led the way with six assists while Micaela Pickens had five.
• Tuesday's game was the second double-overtime game in program history. The only other one took place vs. No. 5 Long Beach State in 1982 (L, 89-90).
• Burke also had 10 rebounds, her third consecutive game posting double figures in rebounds. She had 11 vs. Utah last Friday and 10 vs. No. 21 Colorado on Sunday.
• ASU's bench outscored Arizona's 21-6.
• ASU has now won 17 of its last 19 games vs. Arizona. Seven of the last 13 contests between the two teams have been decided by eight points or less.
• Tuesday night's game was the first of two between the Sun Devils and the Wildcats this week. The rematch will take place on Sunday (1 p.m. MT) at Wells Fargo Arena in a game that can be seen live on Pac-12 Networks and heard live on The Fan AM 1060.