Sun Devils bag Zags
Tom Johnson tugged on his son’s No. 32 Arizona State football jersey to match his son-in-law Cameron Barclift before they settled into the front row at McCarthey Athletic Center, but Aubree Johnson surprised her family by switching to No. 5 to honor her brother.
From there, it was business as usual.
Arizona State, in Johnson’s first game since her younger brother Jordan died 11 days earlier, pulled out an 81-66 victory over Gonzaga Wednesday night before a season-high 3,418 fans at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Johnson, a former star at Post Falls, declined to speak after the game, leaving that up to her teammate and best friend Emily Westerberg, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead the 13th-ranked Sun Devils.
“She’s so proud to wear it,” Westerberg said. “This was absolutely one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, harder for Aubree. I have a new inspiration. My goal is to just play hard to honor Jordan and make his family proud.”
Johnson had four points, three rebounds and two steals. ASU’s high-pressure defense forced 27 Bulldogs turnovers.
“The whole game came down to pressure and smarts,” Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves said. “We didn’t handle their pressure very well and we didn’t play very smart.
“They play really well together and they play really hard. We did a decent job on a lot of their players but Emily – she really knows how to play.”
Westerberg, a former star at Central Valley, had plenty of help, as 6-foot-6 Kirsten Thompson and 5-5 Dymond Simon came off the bench to combine for 30 points.
“You could tell we were not our energized self,” Sun Devils coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “That’s to be expected. But to me it makes it that much sweeter. We’ve had some other kids step up and we have great leadership.”
Arizona State (8-1) outscored the Bulldogs (6-5) 8-2 in the last 3 minutes of the first half to open a 36-26 lead.
Reagan Pariseau, another CV grad, opened the second half with two free throws and Westerberg, who had six points at halftime, scored four to push the lead to 16.
“I knew coming in I would be really excited and energetic,” Westerberg said. “This whole day I’ve been working on breathing and obviously I came out and did exactly what I didn’t want to do. I missed some easy shots and had two fouls. I came out and some of my teammates stepped up huge and that took the pressure off me. I kind of settled in from there.”
Behind Stephanie Hawk, GU battled back, but it never got closer than eight the rest of the way.
Hawk had all 20 of her points in the second half to go with 13 rebounds as Gonzaga had a surprising 42-35 advantage on the boards.
“Coach challenged me at halftime,” Hawk said. “I knew I had to be more aggressive so I stepped up. Of course, I needed to do that right from the start. It might have made a difference.”
With Heather Bowman (Lewis and Clark High) scoring her eight points in the second half and reserve Maria Hassett four of her career-high 11, GU got 32 points from its posts in the final 20 minutes. In the first half it was wing Michelle Elliott and Jami Bjorklund (University High), who finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively, carrying the team.
“They’re pretty good, (but) other than the turnovers, we did not play a bad basketball game,” Graves said. “We didn’t make it hard on them, just too many turnovers.”
ASU only had 13 turnovers. Pariseau, a junior, had five points and Briann January, a sophomore from LC High, had four and both had four assists.
“We always talk about our defense,” Turner Thorne said. “If we play good defense, we’ll score. I wasn’t happy in the second half. Basically we traded baskets. But it was good to have Aubree back out there.”
Gonzaga plays at Eastern Washington at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Arizona St. 81, Gonzaga 66
Arizona State (8-1)- Westerberg 8-15 4-4 20, Johnson 2-4 0-1 4, Pariseau 1-5 2-2 5, January 2-5 0-2 4, Noe 4-10 0-1 10, Simon 6-12 0-0 14, Engelbrecht 0-1 0-0 0, Orsillo 3-9 0-0 6, Lopez 1-2 0-0 2, Murphy 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 8-11 0-0 16. Totals 35-74 6-10 81.
Gonzaga (6-5)- Bowman 4-9 0-0 8, Hawk 6-11 8-9 20, Polishchuk 1-5 0-0 2, Ridenour 0-1 0-0 0, Elliott 6-13 0-0 13, Kame 0-1 0-0 0, Hassett 3-7 0-2 11, Bjorklund 6-12 0-0 12, Frieson 0-3 0-0 0, Santos 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-62 8-11 66.
Halftime—Arizona State 36, Gonzaga 26. 3-Point Goals—Arizona State 5-9 (Simon 2-2, Noe 2-5, Pariseau 1-1, Orsillo 0-1), Gonzaga 2-5 (Hassett 1-1, Elliott 1-3, Polishchuk 0-1). Fouled Out—none. Rebounds—Arizona State 35 (Westerberg 11), Gonzaga 42 (Hawk 13). Assists—Arizona State 22 (Pariseau 4, January 4), Gonzaga 15 (Polishchuk 4, Elliott 4). Total Fouls—Arizona State 18, Gonzaga 15. A—3,418.