EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 19 Arizona State women's basketball team's attempt to come from behind and upset No. 5 Oregon came up just short on Friday night as the Ducks used a late run to escape with a 77-71 win.
Kianna Ibis scored 22 points to lead the Sun Devils (12-5, 3-3 Pac-12), who got within a point of Oregon (16-1, 5-0) in the final minutes after trailing by as many as 13 in the third quarter and by 11 with under seven minutes left in the game.
Jamie Ruden added 12 points while
Charnea Johnson-Chapman (10 points, nine rebounds) scored all 10 of her points in the second half and came within a rebound of a double-double.
The Sun Devils held Oregon 14 points below its scoring average, outrebounded the Ducks 36-31 and turned the ball over only six times while piling up 18 assists.
Reili Richardson (game-high six assists, zero TOs), Ekmark (three assists, zero TOs) and
Kiara Russell (three assists, one TO) combined for 12 assists and only one turnover.
Coming off a 26-point outing in ASU's win over Cal last Sunday, Ibis notched her fourth 20-point game of the season while also tying her season high with eight rebounds.
Taya Hanson buried a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, the second of which capped a 14-4 run by the Sun Devils that cut Oregon's lead to a single-point, 69-68 with under three minutes remaining.
Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 12 of her game-high 31 points in the final quarter, came back with a basket at the opposite end to put the Ducks back up by three. Ibis answered back with a layup to once again get ASU within one. The back-and-forth scoring continued as Maite Cazorla hit a jumper to push Oregon's lead back up to three.
After failing to match with a basket of their own the Sun Devils were forced to foul and Ionescu hit a pair of free throws to increase Oregon's advantage to 73-68.
A triple by Ekmark once again made it a one-possession game, 73-71, but the Sun Devils were not able to generate any more points in the final 17 seconds.
The Sun Devils led by as many as six points in the first quarter. The Ducks used a 10-0 run in the final 2:35 to end the quarter with a 20-16 lead.
Oregon used a 11-2 run in the second quarter to take its first double-digit lead, 31-20, with 5:06 left in the half.
Ruden came up big for the Sun Devils in the period as the junior post scored nine straight points to keep ASU within striking distance.
For ASU, Friday's loss was its third of the season to a top five team, all three games decided by six points or less. The Sun Devils nearly pulled off upsets over then-No. 4 Baylor (L, 59-65) and then-No. 5 Louisville (L, 56-58), losing the two games by a combined eight points. ASU also dropped a 62-55 decision to No. 6 Stanford at home last Friday.
The Sun Devils conclude their road trip to the state of Oregon on Sunday (2 p.m. PT/3 p.m. MT) when they play at No. 10 Oregon State. The game can be seen on Pac-12 Network/Arizona/Oregon and heard on NBC Sports Radio AM 1060 (pre-game coverage starts at 2:30 p.m. MT).
