Janae Fulcher scored 16 points and Alex Earl came off the bench to add a career-high 14 points, leading the Arizona State women’s basketball team to a 60-47 win over Colorado on Saturday.
Kali Bennett added 10 points for the Sun Devils (16-8, 7-6 Pac-12), who snapped a three-game losing streak.
ASU, which came into the game ranked first in the Pac-12 in scoring defense (52.9 points per game), came through with another solid defensive effort, holding Colorado (16-8, 5-8 Pac-12) more than 16 points below its scoring average of 63.2 points.
The Sun Devils, who outrebounded Colorado 43-25, scored 26 points off 24 Colorado turnovers and used a 15-6 advantage on the offensive boards to score 13 second-chance points.
Fulcher was 7 for 9 from the floor and scored 10 of her points in the second half, while Earl was a perfect 9 for 9 from the free-throw line. Kimberly Brandon, ASU’s leading scorer at 10.5 points per game, did not score in the first half but came back to score eight points in the second half while also grabbing eight rebounds for the game.
Leading 29-23 at the break, the Sun Devils started the second half with a 14-6 run to take a 43-29 lead. A 6-0 run later in the half swelled ASU’s advantage to 18 points at 51-33, its largest lead of the game.
The Sun Devils also put the clamps on Colorado’s offense at the time, as they limited the Buffaloes to 3-for-12 shooting while forcing 10 turnovers over the first 13:23 of the second half.
Colorado would counter with a 12-1 run over a three-minute stretch to get within seven points at 52-45 with 3:16 left, but the Sun Devils would reel off five straight points from there to build their lead back up to 57-45 with 1:40 left. The Buffaloes would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the game.
Chucky Jeffery, who came into the game as the Pac-12’s seventh-leading scorer at 15.4 points per game, led Colorado with 10 points (3 for 12 from the field).
