Sun Devil WBB Finds Mid-Season Footing

(photo courtesy: ASU Athletics)

So what can you do for an encore?

After last weekend’s monumental weekend in Tempe upsetting the then second and third-ranked teams in the country, Charli Turner Thorne and her Arizona State Sun Devils (13-4, 3-2) are focused on making sure their sweep of the Oregon schools doesn’t lead to a Pacific Northwest let down starting Friday night at Washington. 

“Keep transforming,” Turner Thorne said when asked what her main message has been to her team. “Keep getting better. The best teams in the country keep getting better.”

Rest assured ASU, now ranked 18th in the country, will get everyone’s best shot moving forward throughout the next six weeks leading into the post-season.

“We weren’t ranked before so rankings don’t matter too much to us,” senior guard Robbi Ryan said with a shrug when asked if the Devils deserved to be ranked higher this week considering what they accomplished against two Top-5 teams. “We’re just trying to keep doing what we do.”

A pair of keys spear-headed ASU becoming the first unranked team to defeat two Top-5 teams back-to-back in at least the last 20 years. Turner Thorne’s team played lock down defense, while minimizing turnovers in wins over Oregon on Friday and Oregon State on Sunday at Desert Financial Arena.

“The women’s game has become more like the men’s game, there’s a lot of parity,” Turner Thorne said. “There is a lot of teams that can beat other teams on any given day. There are a lot of good teams. We just need to keep separating ourselves.” 

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Eric Sorenson

A Valley native, Eric has had a passion for the Arizona sports scene since an early age. He has covered some of the biggest events including Super Bowls, national championships and the NBA and MLB playoffs in his near 20 years in local media.