Ionescu scores 31, No. 5 Ducks top No. 19 Sun Devils 77-71
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Sabrina Ionescu scored 31 points and No. 5 Oregon fought off a late 3-point barrage and outlasted No. 19 Arizona State 77-71 on Friday night.
Maite Cazorla added 16 points and Ruthy Hebard had 14 for the Ducks (16-1, 5-0 Pac-12), who won their ninth game in a row. Oregon made its last six free throws to put the game away.
Kianna Ibis had 22 points to lead the Sun Devils (12-5, 3-3), who scored 15 of their final 17 points from beyond the arc. Jamie Ruden added 12 points off the bench.
Oregon led 65-55 with 6:05 left before ASU used three 3-pointers during an 11-2 run to close to 67-66. Cazorla’s step-back jumper and Ionescu’s two free throws made it 73-68 before Courtney Ekmark’s 3 ended the Sun Devils’ scoring and they had to resort to fouling.
Charnea Johnson-Chapman had 10 points, all in the third quarter, and nine rebounds to help give ASU a 36-31 edge on the boards.
BIG PICTURE
Arizona State now has four losses to teams ranked in the top six by an average of 5.3 points, with Friday night’s six-point margin the largest. The Sun Devils are in a run of four games against ranked opponents, including three in the top 10.
Oregon’s superior firepower as the nation’s highest-scoring team took a backseat to timely defense in the final three minutes to hold off the Sun Devils. The Ducks finished 14 points off their 91.1-point average.
UP NEXT
Arizona State: At No. 10 Oregon State on Sunday.
Oregon: Hosts Arizona on Sunday.
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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.
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