Arizona State Headed To Elite 8

Sun Devils Beat Texas A&M

Mar 29, 2009 Mark Fontes

The Arizona State Sun Devils find themselves in the Elite 8 after playing weeks without a key team member.

The loss of star guard Dymond Simon several weeks ago was something that plagued the Arizona State Sun Devils on an almost daily basis.

Yet since her injury, a lot has been expected of the team, and they’ve clearly given their all as they now stand one game away from a berth in the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

The win that put them in the Elite 8, an 84-69 win over Texas A&M, was a multi-faceted contest that actually surprised many given the unusually high offensive totals.

“Overwhelming pride is what I feel for our team,” says a radiant coach Charli Turner Thorne. “We have a quiet confidence…I think we do believe in ourselves. The key was taking care of the ball…not giving Texas A&M too much transition.

In this feat of a performance, guard Briann January threw in 22 points, while tallying five assists.

“We just played within ourselves,“ claims January. “We knew how to execute against their defense. Our team did a great job of staying with things and staying focused.”

Fellow guard Danielle Orsillo contributed 15 points, while Lauren Lacy came off the bench to score 14. While allowing more points than they normally score themselves, ASU players say they’ll take the win and are so grateful to have reached this level of play.

“We definitely thought it was going to be a defensive battle,“ says Lacey. “Our guards….they looked for us nonstop. Just knowing they have so much confidence in us was all that mattered. We just want the season to keep going. We’ve worked way too hard for it to end now.”

ASU To Face UCONN

The team that no one in the women’s tournament wants to play now has a date with the Sun Devils. The Huskies will tip off against ASU Tuesday at 7p.m. ET in Trenton, with a trip to the Final Four on the line.

36-0. A daunting record indeed. Yet ASU players say none of it sets into Tuesday’s game.

“We’re just going to come out and we’re going to play,“ says Orsillo. “It’s going to be that game, it’s going to be that night, we’re going to be in the present.”

Turner Thorne, having studied UCONN’s specialties through and through, says she’s not worried either.

“Tremendous challenge, but tremendous opportunity,“ admits T.T. “The most talented team does not always win. UCONN is so physically fit. We will try, we will definitely try. It’s going to take an unbelievable amount of effort to advance.”

The copyright of the article Arizona State Headed To Elite 8 in Basketball is owned by Mark Fontes. Permission to republish Arizona State Headed To Elite 8 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.