Breaking: The second quarter is what makes the difference in WBB’s loss to No. 14 Kentucky.

Tennessee – Nashville Notably, No. 14 Kentucky was the biggest opponent the Sun Devil women’s basketball team had ever seen so far on Tuesday. It unfortunately lost to the Wildcats 77–61 at the Coast 2 Coast Music City Classic, but there were still good things to learn from the game.

At first, the Sun Devils (3-3) and the Wildcats (6-0) played evenly. The Sun Devils kept going even after falling behind by as many as 20 points in the second quarter, when almost everything went wrong for ASU and almost everything went right for UK. People who didn’t watch the game or closely looked at what happened afterward probably won’t notice that the Sun Devils got back up, picked themselves up, and slowly cut Kentucky’s lead down to a respectable level.

As the game entered the final six minutes, Tyi Skinner’s three-pointer brought ASU within eight points, making it possible for the Sun Devils to come back from the biggest loss in the school’s history. Although Kentucky finally pulled away, ASU showed what it was made of by refusing to give up when the other team had twice as many points with 33 seconds left in the first half.

After scoring 16 points, Jalyn Brown was ASU’s top scorer in the game. Eight of Nevaeh Parkinson’s 12 points and seven of her nine rebounds came in the second half, helping ASU stay in striking distance. She was one rebound away from a double-double. Seventeen Sun Devils scored in the last 20 minutes, including Parkinson. Others who really helped were Tyi Skinner, who scored six of her eight points and finished the game with five assists, Kennedy Fauntleroy, who scored all six of her points, Jyah LoVett, who scored all five of her points, and Jazion Jackson, who scored five of her eight points. Additionally, Maggie Besselink grabbed six of her seven boards.

Along with scoring 38 points more than the Wildcats in the second half, ASU also had six more boards (28-22) and five more second chance points (11-5). Additionally, the Sun Devils only turned the ball over four times after making ten mistakes in the first half, which led to nine UK goals.

According to the first quarter, which showed that both teams were shooting poorly (ASU 5 of 14 and Kentucky 6 of 17), the game would be a close, defensive battle. Brown (six points), Parkinson (three points), and Jackson (three points) scored 12 of ASU’s 15 points in the first 4 minutes.

Around the middle of the first quarter, Kentucky had the biggest lead of the game (9–5). After Parkinson’s three-pointer with 2:45 left, the Sun Devils went on an 8-1 run that gave them their biggest lead (13-10). In response, Kentucky scored five of the last six points to take a 15–14 lead into the stanza.

Nothing that happened in the first 10 minutes indicated what ensued over the next 10 minutes. In the second quarter, the Wildcats connected on 71 percent (10-14) of their shots, outscoring ASU 27-9. On the flip side, ASU missed its first 10 shots. Skinner’s jumper with 2:44 remaining broke the cold spell. Brown had two layups in the final minute and the Sun Devils went to the locker room trailing 42-23.

LoVett’s jumper with 3:59 left in the third quarter cut ASU’s deficit to 11. After UK reclaimed a 15-point lead, LoVett (3-pointer) and Fauntleroy (2-2 FTs) scored the next five points to make it a 54-44 game late in the quarter.

After Skinner’s triple brought ASU within eight, the Wildcats used a 9-2 run to extend their lead to 15. The Sun Devils got no closer than 12 points the rest of the game.

For ASU, Tuesday’s game was the first of seven consecutive in which it will be on the road for either a neutral site contest (three games) or as the away team in a true road game (four games). The Sun Devils play the second of the three neutral site contests on Wednesday morning (10 a.m. MST/11 a.m. CST) when they face South Dakota in the first ever meeting between the two schools. The game can be seen on BALLERtv (a pay-per-view streaming service) and heard on 1440 AM KAZG.
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