Feb. 3, 2005
BERKELEY, Calif. - Junior Kristen Kovesdy scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half as Arizona State pulled away to defeat California 76-59 Thursday night at Haas Pavilion.
With the win, ASU improved to 15-6 overall and 7-4 in league play, while Cal lost its eighth straight game and fell to 8-13 and 2-10 in Pac-10 action.
ASU took a small lead throughout most of the first half, taking an 11-7 advantage with 15:10 to play. The Golden Bears tied it up at 21 with 5:04 to play and took a four-point lead, 25-21 with 3:57 to play. ASU tied it up at 25 and scored the last five points of the half, including a three-pointer at the buzzer by sophomore Emily Westerberg, to take a 30-27 halftime advantage.
Westerberg knocked down another three to start the second half and put the Sun Devils up by six. Cal cut the lead to two four times over the first nine minutes of the game, but ASU used an 8-0 run fueled by back-to-back three-pointers by senior Kylan Loney to take a 51-41 lead with 9:24 remaining. ASU never allowed Cal to get closer than six points and led by as many as 19 en route to the 76-59 victory, the team's fourth straight over the Golden Bears.
Kovesdy went 6-of-8 from the floor and scored 19 points in the second half to tie her season high with 21 points in the contest. Westerberg ended up with 16 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while Loney also added 16 points, knocking down 4-of-5 three-point attempts.
Jessica Lawson and Rene Wright led Cal with 12 points each. The Sun Devils outrebounded the Bears 34-27, including a 19-9 advantage in the second half, and made seven of 12 three-point attempts (58.3 percent). ASU forced 24 Cal turnovers and scored 36 points off the miscues.
Arizona State returns to action on Saturday afternoon, taking on the No. 4/2 Stanford Cardinal at 12 p.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Mountain) at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal has won its last 34 Pac-10 home games, including a 91-74 victory over Arizona on Thursday night.
Saturday's game at Stanford will be televised nationally by Fox Sports Net, while all of ASU's games can be heard locally on NBC 1190 AM or on the internet at www.thesundevils.com with Jeff Munn calling the action.