University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
Arizona State
No. 13 Arizona State Shoots Down Lady Tiger Basketball
Dec 02, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2005
Pounding away on the interior of the Lady Tiger defense, the No. 13 Arizona State (5-1) Sun Devils shot 48.7 percent for the game and outrebounded Memphis 54-35 in a 103-57 ASU victory, Friday. The loss drops Memphis to 1-5 on the season and will put the Lady Tigers in the consolation game against either Holy Cross or Western Kentucky at 4 p.m. (MT), Saturday.
Memphis came out and as Lady Tiger guard Devin Necaise got off to a quick start coming off a career-high 19 point outing at Lipscomb, she scored seven of Memphis' first eight points to keep the Lady Tigers close, but two Arizona State layups and a jump shot later, the Lady Tigers were down by 14. Memphis clawed back to a 10-point deficit, 26-16, at the 7:46 mark, but Arizona State kept outscoring Memphis, 13-9, in the next four minutes to stretch their half time lead to 52-28.
"We did not do a good job rebounding the ball," Head Coach Blair Savage said. "By the end of the game, we were just scrambling to work with what we had. We had Megan Gooch playing the three."
The Lady Tigers were without senior point guard Tamika Butler for late minutes in the first half and only had her for a brief period in the second half as she rolled her ankle pursuing an offensive rebound. Junior Ashley Howard moved over to the point, but when Howard fouled out with almost nine minutes remaining, Memphis had to scramble its remaining players to handle the sudden Arizona State press.
Necaise finished with a career-high 28 points, shattering her previous class of 19 which she set in the Lipscomb win. Paris Leonard was the next-leading scorer with six points. Jill Noe led the Sun Devils with 19 points, while Kristen Kovesdy finished with 18.
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