Lauren Lacey, Lady Sun Devils Blaze through Oregon Trail

In our weekly update on the Arizona State women’s hoops team, Lauren Lacey and her teammates found just what they needed to break out of a three-game slump.

Don’t miss this morning’s men’s hoops update!

Last week (2-0, 10-6 overall, 2-2 Pac-10): W ASU 69, Oregon State 38; W ASU 81, Oregon 53

What We Learned: That the Sun Devils, with proper motivation, can play some serious defense. Head coach Charli Turner Thorne is passionate about her squads making defense a top priority, but too often earlier in the season it failed to come through in big moments, letting several second-half leads slip away to turn potential Sun Devil wins into losses.

The suffocating, lock-down defense returned last weekend. The Sun Devils allowed a total of 91 points in two games en route to picking up a much-needed road sweep. If ASU has plans to make some noise in the competitive Pac-10 this season, it needed to rebound after dropping its first two conference games against the Bay Area schools, and it did in a big way. The Sun Devils definitely made a statement to the rest of the conference this weekend.

Star of the Week: It’s always a nice luxury to have a returning all-conference player come off your bench, as senior post Lauren Lacey does for the Sun Devils. Lacey was the team’s leading scorer a year ago, and is thriving in a sixth-woman role this season for ASU.

Against Oregon, the 6-foot-3 Lacey tallied a team-high 19 points, a season high for the returning All-Pac-10 second-teamer. Lacey, who added 10 points against Oregon State, is certainly capable of playing big minutes in relief of starting post Sybil Dosty, who has seen her time limited in some contests this season because of foul trouble.

What’s Next: Even though it’s still early, the Sun Devils certainly didn’t want to fall behind too far in the conference, and that’s why the two wins in the Beaver State were absolutely crucial. Now they have to focus on carrying the defensive intensity and focus over to their next pair of contests – home games against UCLA on Thursday and USC on Saturday.

The Bruins and Ladies of Troy are both off to strong starts this season, and both can put up points in bunches – USC is second in the conference in scoring, and UCLA is third. The Bruins beat the Ladies of Troy 87-75 on Sunday.

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