Despite Arizona women’s basketball’s first ever triple-double by senior guard Davellyn Whyte, Arizona lost 81-77 to ASU in double overtime Tuesday night.
Whyte had 31 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, but the Wildcats (12-14, 4-11 Pac-12) still lost their fourth straight to the Sun Devils.
“It’s kind of hard to celebrate that after a loss. I can’t even really think about it … the only stat I see is the ‘L,’” Whyte said.
ASU (12-15, 4-11) snapped its seven-game losing streak.
When asked if Whyte’s night was an important milestone in her postgame press conference, head coach Niya Butts said, “Not when we lose.”
“Obviously it was a great game for her in terms of a statistical game, but I’m sure she’d rather have the win than have the triple double,” Butts said. “But you can’t say enough of what she did. Obviously she made some plays, but as a team we didn’t do what we were supposed to do down the stretch. We allowed them to score too easy.
“I’m certainly happy for her. It’s a milestone.”
After the game, Whyte played a game-high 50 minutes.
“My adrenaline rush was just so high I didn’t even know that many minutes I had under my belt,” Whyte said.
Junior forwards Erica Barnes, Alli Gloyd and junior guard/forward Carissa Crutchfield also scored in the double digits, with 12, 12 and 10 points, respectively. Gloyd also added eight rebounds.
The score was tied 12 times, and there were four lead changes. Arizona won the turnover battle 17-16, but ASU shot 46.6 percent from the field, while the Wildcats shot 43.7.
“Obviously this is a tough one to swallow,” Butts said. “We made some plays in the game, but we didn’t make enough to get the win. Credit to them; they made enough plays down the stretch to beat us.”
Arizona’s starters all played at least 39 minutes, and Barnes, Whyte, Crutchfield and junior guard/forward Kama Griffitts played at least 44.
“Everyone was getting kind of tired, but I felt like we made mental mistakes,” Whyte said. “I think they were more physically tired than we were.”
ASU jumped out to a 12-4 lead, but Whyte hit a couple of 3-pointers to cut it to 17-12.
Arizona would eventually tie it at 20 with 9:17 left in the first half. The Sun Devils led 35-31 at halftime.
With about 16 minutes left, Arizona tied it 40 and then took the lead, 42-40, with 15:20 left.
At 9:02, the Sun Devils took back the lead.
When ASU ran its lead to 61-56 with 2:16 left, Whyte answered with a basket.
After the Sun Devils scored, Whyte responded and Griffitts hit a 3-pointer to tie it.
The overtimes were back and forth until the final few seconds.
Despite the painful loss, there is a silver lining: The Wildcats and Sun Devils play on Sunday in Tempe, Ariz.
“You’re never pleased when you don’t win,” Butts said. “We were able to get back into it, but I thought we should’ve been able to get a few more stops than we did. We kind of let them have their way in the paint.”