Cold shooting dooms Husky women in loss to Arizona State

They had, uncharacteristically, spent much of the afternoon looking disorganized on defense.

And they had, too often, looked disoriented on offense, leaving the Huskies in a hole in the second half Sunday against Arizona State.

And yet, a breakthrough appeared imminent for the Washington women’s basketball team to open the fourth quarter.

UW’s Jayda Noble, on the first possession of the fourth quarter, made a strong drive and finished with a nifty left-handed layup to pull the Huskies within one point. Teammates bounced off the bench in excitement and crowd rose to its feet at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Huskies, finally, had some momentum.

It didn’t last.

The Huskies didn’t score another basket for seven minutes, allowing Arizona State to pull away with 10 consecutive points en route to a 73-65 victory Sunday afternoon.

The loss wasted a prime opportunity for the Huskies (12-5, 2-4 Pac-12) to climb back to .500 in Pac-12 play against an Arizona State team (9-10, 1-6 Pac-12) that had lost its first six conference games.

Sunday’s setback was particularly disappointing for the Huskies coming on the heels of their thrilling last-second victory over Arizona on Friday night. That win looked like it could spark the breakthrough the Huskies need in conference play.

It didn’t carry over into Sunday.

“I think that we’ll learn a great lesson in this game,” UW coach Tina Langley said. “… You have to have a commitment to the consistency in which you approach each day and in the way we play and the way we communicate and in the way we play defense.”

The Huskies pride themselves on their defense. They rank in the top-20 nationally as a defense, striking to the heart of what Langley has been trying to build in her third season running the program.

But that defensive intensity was missing for much of the game Sunday.

Arizona State’s Jalyn Brown scored 34 points on 11-of-20 shooting. Too often Brown had open looks from three-point range — hitting 4-of-5 threes — and too often the Huskies left her a lane on her dominant right hand coming off a simple ball screen.

“We can’t go from the way we defended in the Arizona game to Arizona State,” Langley said. “It’s just (about) the consistency of who we want to be. We need to continue to grow.”

The Sun Devils shot 50% from the field (10 for 20) in the second half and hit 13 of their last 16 free throws to close it out.

The Huskies never led after the second quarter.

“Our preparation wasn’t right there,” UW senior forward Lauren Schwartz said. “We really needed to dictate their offense, and we didn’t do what we like to do on defense.”

Arizona State’s Isadora Sousa hit a buzz-beating three-pointer to end a taut and hard-fought first half, giving the Sun Devils a 37-33 halftime lead.

UW missed nine of its first 11 shots to open the third quarter, allowing Arizona State to build a 46-39 lead.

Freshman Sayvia Sellers’ three-point play late in the third quarter got the Huskies within 48-47, and Noble’s strong drive early in the fourth kept it at one point at 50-49.

The Huskies missed their next eight shots (including two free throws) and had two key turnovers. The Sun Devils took advantage, going on a 10-0 run and extending their lead to 63-51 on a Brown three-pointer with 2:48 left.

The Huskies had a 15-8 disadvantage in turnovers, and Arizona State had a 17-0 edge in points off turnovers.

“I think our timing was a little behind on both ends of the floor,” Langley said. “And I think we pressed a bit. We got outside of being process-focused at times and got results-based a little bit at times, and that changes your offense. You start putting a lot of pressure on your shots because you have this huge outcome related to each shot, instead of just, ‘This is the next shot.’”

Hannah Stines had 20 points to lead the Huskies, who shot 40% overall (22 for 55) and 33% in the second half (12 for 36). The Huskies head out on the road against the Los Angeles schools next weekend.

“I really trust the character of our team,” Langley said. “We’ll come in on Tuesday with a great mindset for work. Honestly, we learn more in adversity, so I think we’ll be more ready to watch film and more ready to get into the gym and work together and be better next game.”

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