ASU Women’s Basketball: Sun Devils struggle, Cal wins first game of the season

In a 67-55 loss, Arizona State (10-9, 5-9 Pac-12) handed the California Golden Bears (1-14, 1-11) its first win of the season.

Coming into the game, the Golden Bears had lost all 14 of their games played before Sunday, including a 56-53 loss to the Sun Devils back on Jan. 1.

After a slow first quarter where ASU scored eight points and Cal scored five, the Golden Bears outscored the Sun Devils 62-47 throughout the remaining three quarters.

ASU struggled offensively in yet another game, shooting 29 percent from the field, compared to Cal’s 49 percent. The Sun Devils also struggled from the free throw line, only making 11 out of 20.

“We didn’t make layups this weekend,” coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We didn’t make free throws...We’re a Division I program and we can’t make easy shots and that’s killing us.”

Sophomore guard Leilani McIntosh recorded a season-high of 21 points in 40 minutes for Cal. McIntosh was 4-4 from three and 7-7 from the free throw line. Mia Mastrov and Evelien Lutje Schipholt each scored 12 points as well for the Golden Bears.

Taya Hanson had her second best scoring game of the season with 17 points and five rebounds in 34 minutes for ASU.

Other contributors for the Sun Devils were Jaddan Simmons with 10 points, five rebounds and four assists along with Jamie Loera and Maggie Besselink with six points each.

Being ninth in the Pac-12, Turner Thorne is not optimistic about the postseason.

“We were trying to get into postseason,” said Turner Thorne. “That’s not definitely an option anymore, so we’ve just got to try to play a little bit of basketball and not be so awful.”

Arizona State will host its last regular season game next Sunday against the Arizona Wildcats at 12:00 p.m. MST.