Rice women's basketball dominates fourth quarter for WNIT win over ASU

Rice women's basketball dominated Arizona State in the fourth quarter Friday, winning 48-36 in a WNIT first-round game in Fort Worth, Texas.

ASU led 31-30 after the third quarter then was outscored 13-2 in the first seven minutes of the fourth and 18-5 overall in the period.

The Sun Devils also scored just four points in the first quarter and 12 in the first half, continuing a season-long offensive struggle.

ASU fell to 11-11 with Rice improving to 19-4. The Sun Devils will play Missouri (9-12) in a WNIT consolation game at 9 a.m. Saturday. Fresno State rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Missouri, 78-75, on Friday. 

The Sun Devils shot just 24.6% overall and 10% (2-of-20) in the fourth quarter. They were 3-of-22 (13.6%) from 3-point, not making a trey until early in the third quarter after missing their first nine attempts.

"When you hold a team to 48 points, that should be enough," ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said in a post-game radio interview. "We're not this bad offensively. When we get in games, we look like we can't shoot.

"We had to get second shots and rebound for each other and we didn't. That was the difference in the game. This young team lets stuff bother team. When they don't make a play, they don't have energy and that's not a winning strategy. We just don't have that toughness to play through an offensive drought. No one stepped up offensively, which was tough."

Maggie Besselink led ASU with nine points and seven rebounds. Taya Hanson scored eight points and Jaddan Simmons seven.

Rice 6-9 senior center Nancy Mulkey scored 10 of her 16 points in the second half and Lauren Schwartz also had 16. The Owls led 36-32 in rebounding and 28-16 in paint points while shooting 43.5% from the field despite going 2-of-15 from 3-point. 

"We held them 20 points below their average (69.0)," Turner Thorne said. "Even when we were down eight, I thought we were fine. We knew we could get stops, but we weren't locked in. We stood around when the ball came off the rim.

"I tried not to overplay people. That didn't seem to help the overall situation as much as I had hoped. Rebounding was the game. We knew we weren't able to live off one shot."

More:ASU women face big WNIT challenge in Rice 6-9 center Nancy Mulkey

Reach the reporter at jeff.metcalfe@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.

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