ASU women’s basketball uses dominant second half to close out Washington State
After a somewhat lackluster performance in the opening half of play, No. 19 ASU women’s basketball used a dominant second-half effort to defeat Washington State University, 68-49, Friday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.
Senior forward Sophie Brunner led the way for the Sun Devils with 20 points and 15 rebounds, leaving her coach quite impressed following the 19-point victory.
“How about Sophie Brunner? I mean just an All-American performance,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “She just led us so amazingly with her effort.”
It was Brunner’s fourth double-double of the season, and also marked her career-high in rebounds.
“She does what she needs to do,” Turner Thorne said. “All I kept doing in the timeout is say ‘Can somebody please rebound like Sophie? Can we step up like Sophie?”
Late in the first quarter, WSU freshman guard Cameron Fernandez was injured on a physical play with ASU senior center Quinn Dornstauder, who drove the ball into the paint while making contact with Fernandez. A charge was called on the play.
Great display of sportsmanship by @SunDevilWBB & @WSUWomensHoops for checking on Fernandez. Both teams are warming up. 1.7 secs left in 1st. pic.twitter.com/AbRyK1W0Mn
— Tyler Handlan (@tyler_handlan) January 13, 2017
Fernandez was down for quite some time before a medical staff showed up to take her to a local hospital for further evaluation.
“Nobody’s happy to be in a play like that,” Dornstauder said. “Honestly I’m not too sure what even happened. All I can say is that I just hope the best…