Arizona Women's Basketball beats ASU, earns Regular Season sweep

TUCSON, AZ – Looking to earn the regular season sweep over ASU (10-12, 2-8), Arizona Basketball (12-10, 4-6) was too much for the Sun Devils, winning 63-52.

Getting a win is great, getting it against ASU is even better!

Just days after getting walloped by Stanford at home, Arizona Women's Basketball was back in action as they took on rival Arizona State, looking to earn the regular season sweep against the Sun Devils.

Despite a close first period, Arizona took control of the second period, never seemingly looking back after that as the Wildcats cruised its way to a 63-52 win over ASU.

Led by Esmery Martinez's 18 points, the former West Virginia transfer helped propel the Cats in their 11-point win as she went 5-12 from the field, including 7-9 from the charity stripe.

Beyond her, the Wildcats had three different Wildcats finish in double-figures with the bench contributing with 10 points. 

Jumping out to a 31-24 lead at the half, Arizona Women's Basketball was able to hang on to beat the visiting Sun Devils!

After a slower start to its season, Arizona Women's Basketball has seemingly found a bit of a groove as of late. And entering Sunday's action, the Wildcats were looking to get back on track as they took on the visiting Sun Devils.

From the tip, the Wildcats were able to take control, jumping out to a 12-8 lead before ASU was able to close out the quarter on a 5-2 run to cut Arizona's lead to just 14-13 after the first quarter.

Leading by one, Arizona would begin to assert its dominance in the second quarter, eventually pushing its lead to as many as eight after Esmery Martinez connected on a three-pointer to make it 21-13 with 7:07 to play.

Minutes later, ASU would pull within one after a second-chance jumper from Trayanna Crisp made it 23-22 with just over two minutes left in the half.

Luckily, that would be the closest they would get in the first half as Arizona closed out the second quarter on an 8-2 run to make it 31-24 at the half.

Looking to claw its way back in, Arizona would start the second half on a 5-1 run, extending its lead to 11 before ASU would respond. And the cushion would help too as the Sun Devils answered by closing out the second quarter by outscoring the Cats 16-9 as they trailed 45-41 heading into the fourth and final quarter.

Hoping to close out the game strong, fortunately, Arizona was up to the task! Starting the quarter on a 14-2 run, the Wildcats would lead by 16 after Martinez connected on the back end of a pair of free throws to make it 59-43 with 3:54 to play.

Leading comfortably, Arizona would eventually cruise to the 63-52 win over ASU, despite the Sun Devils' best attempts to try and come back in this one!

With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 12-10 (4-6) on the year and will resume conference action on Friday when they travel to Southern California to take on the UCLA Bruins. Tip-off against UCLA is set for 9:00 PM MST and will be broadcast on Pac-12 Network. 

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