Feb. 1, 2003
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Arizona State women's basketball team scored a season-low 45 points and shot just 25 percent from the field, falling to the Oregon State Beavers 70-45 Saturday night at OSU's Gill Coliseum.
With the loss, the team's fourth straight at Gill Coliseum, the Sun Devils fell to 12-8 overall and 4-7 in the Pac-10, while the Beavers completed a sweep of the Arizona schools after upsetting No. 24 Arizona on Thursday and are now 12-8 overall and 6-5 in the league.
For the second game in a row, the Sun Devils started slow, going without a field goal for the first 5:34 of the contest and falling behind 9-3 with 12:30 to play. Arizona State tied the game at 13-13 with 7:48 remaining and took their first lead of the ball game with 5:57 to play when freshman Jill Noe got a steal and made a layup to make it 19-18. OSU, however, scored the next four points of the game to regain a 22-19 lead with 4:08 to play. ASU would cut the lead to one, but Oregon State held onto a 28-25 halftime lead.
Arizona State had just eight field goals and shot just 30.8 percent in the first half (8-26) compared to 44.0 percent by the Beavers (11-25). Oregon State junior Hollye Chapman led all scorers with 16 points in the first half. Noe had eight points to lead the Sun Devils, while freshman Jenny Thigpin had eight of her career-high nine rebounds in the first 20 minutes.
In the second half, ASU scored the first three points of the half to take a 29-28 lead, but the Beavers scored 24 of the next 31 points, including an 11-0 run, in the game to take a 52-36 lead with 7:03 to play and never looked back. The Sun Devils' offensive performance got worse in the second half with the team managing just 20 points and shooting 19.2 percent from the field (5-26).
Noe led the Sun Devils with 12 points but shot just 3-of-10 from the field, while sophomore Carrie Buckner and junior Iman Young each had seven points. Thigpin finished with a team-high nine rebounds.
For Oregon State, Chapman led all scorers with 22 points and also added nine rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal. OSU's Casey Bunn turned in a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Arizona State returns home next weekend, hosting Washington State on Thursday, Feb. 6 and 25th-ranked Washington on Saturday, Feb. 8 at Wells Fargo Arena. Thursday night's game with the Cougars will tip off at 6 p.m., while Saturday afternoon, ASSU will play the Huskies at 1 p.m. AZ-TV will televise Thursday night's game, and Fox Sports Net will broadcast Saturday's game to a national cable audience.
All of ASU's games can be heard locally on the Sun Devils' flagship station, NBC 1190 AM, or via the internet at www.thesundevils.com.