After a sluggish start and a too close for comfort fourth quarter, the Oregon Ducks (15-1, 4-0 Pac-12) defeated the Arizona State Sun Devils 77-71 Friday night at Matthew Knight Arena.
Oregon’s victory over the Sun Devils (12-5, 3-3 Pac-12), marks its first win over a ranked opponent in conference play, and its third over a top-25 opponent so far this season.
Here are three takeaways from Oregon’s win:
Three clutch Cazorla 3s
The Sun Devils stepped onto the court and made their presence known. Fewer than three minutes in, the Ducks had lost the lead and the momentum to the visitors.
The Ducks’ deficit got as big as six before a 3-pointer from point guard Maite Cazorla launched a 10-0 Oregon run, allowing the Ducks to close the quarter on top, 20-16.
Cazorla came through and lit the Oregon spark twice more in the game: Once right before the halftime break to end a 4-0 ASU run and another midway through the third quarter to break an almost 4-minute Oregon drought.
“Maite was great,” Oregon head coach Kelly Graves said. “I thought she was great down the stretch. And when they were making that run, I thought she gave us a really solid effort, but a calming influence and made a couple of big shots too.”
Mismatched turnovers help Ducks prepare for Sunday
Sabrina Ionescu threw an incomplete passes three times in the second quarter. One went to an empty corner of the court, one was passed too far ahead of a running Cazorla and one was intercepted by Sun Devil Iris Mbulito.
Easy turnovers like that helped ASU earn 11 points off of turnovers, while Oregon was only able to make eight.
At some points, ASU’s aggressive defense was a wake-up call to Oregon, and the Ducks would often leave the key before waiting for a rebound. This allowed ASU to out-rebound the Ducks, 36-31, with 15 of them coming from remaining under the basket to catch their offensive rebounds.
Oregon will need to have better control over its offense on Sunday when the team plays the Arizona Wildcats, who are ranked No. 1 in the conference for scoring defenses. The Sun Devils are ranked just below the Wildcats in the same category.
The Satou swat
With fewer than three minutes remaining in the game, all that was standing in the way of an ASU comeback was three points.
Sun Devil Taya Hanson made her way to the arc’s left corner with one minutes, 40 seconds remaining on the clock. She collected a pass and lifted off for the shot. But the minute the ball released from her grasp, Satou Sabally sprinted and smacked the ball out of bounds.
“That was huge,” Ionsecu said. “A transition three like that, while we’re running back on defense, could have changed the outcome of the game … Satou chased that ball down from half court and got a big-time block and that’s what she does for us”
Sabally led the team with four blocks, also setting a career-high for the sophomore forward.
Follow Maggie Vanoni on Twitter: @maggie_vanoni
Takeaways from No. 5 Oregon’s thrilling defeat of No. 19 Arizona State
Maggie Vanoni
January 18, 2019
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