Sun Devils Escape 53-49
Rick Morgan

The Arizona State Sun Devils stole a 53-49 victory from Oregon Saturday afternoon at Matthew Knight Arena.

For the first twenty minutes the Ducks had every opportunity to run away from the Sun Devils but instead found nearly every way possible to make sure they didn't, limping to a 17-16 halftime margin that easily could have been 37-16.

In the second half the Sun Devils found enough offense to stave off several sincere but flawed attempts by the Ducks to push ahead.

Only Jasmin Holliday (12 pts) scored in double figures as the Ducks shot 17-56  from the floor while being out rebounded 52-38 - including a 20-12 ASU advantage on the offensive glass.

Despite those daunting figures Oregon never fell further than five points behind the Sun Devils and trailed by only one point as late as the 0:21 mark of the second half.

Two nights after shooting well against Arizona, Oregon struggled to put the ball in the bucket right from the start while enjoying a wealth of fast break opportunities and ASU turnovers.

The Sun Devils couldn't shoot any better, going 6-30 in the opening half and Oregon rebounded 16 of those 24 misses to routinely beat ASU down the court only to fumble away their chance at the rim.

Arizona State's Kimberly Brandon buried a three to open the second half to give the Sun Devils their first lead of game at 19-17 and Oregon unsuccessfully played catch-up the rest of the way, never quite putting together a series of baskets to take a lead. Missed free throws played a part as well; Oregon hit only 9-16 second half attempts.

The loss drops Oregon to 10-8 on the year and 2-4 in Pac-12 play. USC (Jan 19) and UCLA (Jan 21) in Los Angeles is up next then a Civil War date (Jan 28) with the Beavers in Corvallis before returning to host Utah and Colorado on Feb 2 (7:00 pm) and Feb 4 (2:00 pm).