Ebo, Citron lead No. 7 Irish women past Arizona State 85-65
BIMINI, Bahamas (AP) — Lauren Ebo scored 20 points, Sonia Citron added 15 and No. 7 Notre Dame took control late in the third quarter and raced to an 85-65 win over Arizona State in the Goombay Classic on Saturday.
The game was tied at 43 when Ebo stepped to the foul line with 3:03 to play in the third quarter. Ebo made both shots and the Fighting Irish didn’t look back.
Citron (11) and Ebo combined for 20 points as Notre Dame made 16 of its final 21 shots while ASU made 8 of 21.
Kylee Watson followed Ebo with a layup and the Fighting Irish outscored Arizona State 12-2 over the final three minutes of the third quarter to take a 55-45 lead. Notre Dame was 4 of 5 from the field and 4 of 6 from the line while ASU made 1 of 7 shots.
Arizona State (5-1) made the first bucket of the fourth quarter but Notre Dame scored the next nine points.
KK Bransford scored 14 points and matched Ebo’s nine rebounds for the Fighting Irish (6-0). Olivia Miles added 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Tyi Skinner scored 15 points and Jaddan Simmons had 14 for the Sun Devils, who suffered their first loss after five wins under new coach Natasha Adair.
Notre Dame scored six straight points early in the second quarter to take a 24-15 lead but then the Sun Devils made 9 of 12 shots to race to a 34-31 halftime lead. Notre Dame ended up with a 45-29 rebounding advantage, 18-6 on the offensive end, outscoring ASU 54-28 in the paint and 20-6 in second-chance points.
The other big difference was at the foul line, where Notre Dame was 21 of 36 compared to 9 of 15 for ASU, which had 26 fouls, 14 more than the Irish.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame: Hosts No. 14 Maryland in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Thursday.
Arizona State: Returns home to play Grand Canyon on Wednesday before playing UMass in the inaugural Briann January Classic on Friday. After a long career in the WNBA, January had her number retired by the Sun Devils last season and joined the school Hall of Fame.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
