TEMPE, Ariz. – At the beginning of the third quarter at Desert Financial Arena, ASU’s fifth-year guard Gabby Elliott earned a trip to the free-throw line for three shots. 

While the usual scorer for the Sun Devils made all three from the charity stripe, what took place after was a disaster for coach Molly Miller’s squad.

Kansas State’s season leading scorer, junior guard Taryn Sides, caught fire, scoring an impressive nine points in a row to put her team up 21. After the improbable stretch of scoring, KSU added fuel to the fire, going up 24 — its biggest lead of the game — due to sophomore guard Izela Arena’s contested corner three.

Arizona State (18-5, 5-5) welcomed a recently struggling Kansas State (12-11, 5-5) for legendary former player Briann January's bobblehead night and left the arena with its first home loss of the season, 74-67. The Sun Devils mounted an incredible comeback attempt, cutting the lead to nine with three minutes left, after being down by 16 to open up the last quarter.

“This is a team where we knew they were going to shoot the three, and we didn’t stop that,” Miller said after the game. “So that’s got to be extra focus on our part. We’ve got to regroup and be able to say ‘this is game film and scout that we’re presenting.’”

After a competitive first quarter, 17-15 at the end, the Wildcats executed their second-quarter game plan to perfection. Kansas State held ASU to only nine points in the second 10 minutes, including a 3-for-11 clip in the frame. 

Only three Sun Devils scored in the second, and the team turned the ball over six times, which led to four 3-pointers by the opposition. The haunting period put the Sun Devils down by double digits at the break, sparking fatigued players to go into the locker room.

“I feel like we practice that all week, the communication,” junior forward McKinna Brackens said about her team’s performance. “That was the main thing we worked on. Lack of focus, that’s on us.”

Kansas State’s junior forward Nastja Claessens showcased her fluent jump shot all game, recording 18 points in her third-highest scoring game of the season. Claessens also impressed with rebounding, recording 12  — only her second time with double-digit rebounds this season.

With ASU paying close attention to Claessens and Sides, respectively, other shooters found open spots, leading to the 3-point barrage. Two other Wildcats drained multiple threes, leading to an improbable 12-for-20 total from beyond the arc.

“I thought our group played really well for a majority of the game,” Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie said. “We just shot so well today. The ball moved so well, I’m proud of our group. I thought we battled all day.”

The Sun Devils buried themselves in a hole that seemed impossible to crawl out of. Brackens added up 20 points in the contest, a mark she has only eclipsed three other times this season.

While Brackens shot 8-for-13, the rest of her team struggled from the field. In totality, ASU finished with a 43.5 shooting percentage and 21.7% from deep.

While the offense struggled to find a rhythm, the well-known Miller-led defensive scheme led ASU to 11 steals and three blocks. 

But all of the long-range shots for the Wildcats put them over the edge. The Sun Devils had three more total field goals, but seven fewer threes, leading to their demise.

“Every guard out there is a shooter,” Miller said about her defense’s rotations. “So it’s just talking your way through the chaos, and that’s something we can improve on. We’re capable of that.”

With the win being an impressive feat in the season for KSU, the Wildcats continue to push forward without one of their best players. Senior guard Tess Heal has put up six double-digit scoring games in conference play, including 31 against Houston. 

“She (Heal) is our leader on the floor,” Mitte said about the first-year Wildcat. “You could see the stress of our group at the end of third and the remainder of the game.”

The Sun Devils look to bounce back at their home arena on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 6:30 MST against Oklahoma State. In the annual pink-out game for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, ASU will hope to bring the energy of Desert Financial Arena to a complete, defensive 40-minute effort.

“If we can play like that (urgently) for the last 16 minutes, we should be able to play that for 40 minutes,” Miller said. “So that’s where we have to kind of dig deep and find that intensity. On the defensive end more than the offensive end, that’s where we have to improve for this stretch in February."