By: Joe Lami

For the first time in 31 years, the Arizona State Sun Devils have won a game at Maples Pavilion, as they beat the Cardinal 60-57 on Monday afternoon.   The Sun Devils dominated the entire game, as they never lost the lead. However, Stanford did make it interesting down to the end, as they were able to erase the 17-point half time deficit.

The Sun Devils hit the shots when the mattered towards the end, as Sophie Brunner and Alisha Davis added four points from the charity strike in the last 11 seconds of the game. The Cardinal were trailing by three with two seconds remaining, and had possession after a controversial call on who touched the ball last before going out of bounds. Taylor Greenfield was set to in bound in her own end with Bonnie Samuelson awaiting at the other end of the floor set for a three, but good defense by the Sun Devils forced the short inbounds play to Amber Orrange. Orrange was forced to try and heave a last second prayer from half court that ended short.

Arizona State’s stymie defense gave Stanford fits in the first half, holding the Cardinal to just 29% shooting in the first half, and going two of ten from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Arizona State couldn’t miss finishing 52% from the field in the first half. However, it was a tail of two halves for both squads, as the Cardinal really upped the defense in the second half, holding the Sun Devils to just six second half field goals, as they dwindled the huge ASU lead to as low as one with five minutes remaining, but Arizona State started to heat back up and pulled away.

Greenfield, Orrange and Lili Thompson were Stanford’s leading scorers with 12 points each. Thompson was still able to hit 12 points, after going just 3 of 13 for the game. Guard, Briana Roberson came off of the bench to add nine.

Promise Amukamara led all scorers with 17 points, as she played a pivotal role in getting ASU the win. Davis and Brunner also got into double digits for the Sun Devils with ten.

It’s a huge win for Arizona State, as they remain undefeated in Pac-12 play, as they also defeated Cal earlier this weekend. Arizona State has only lost one game all year, to 13-3 Green Bay. Monday also marks the first time since 2006 where the Sun Devils have beaten the Cardinal.