UCLA
Arizona State
Bruins Down Sun Devils 77-69
January 08, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2006
LOS ANGELES (AP) - After missing two games last year against Arizona State, UCLA's Noelle Quinn was eager to play well against the Sun Devils.
Quinn tied her season high with 24 points, and Lisa Willis added 23 to lead the Bruins to a 77-69 victory over No. 9 Arizona State on Sunday. Nikki Blue had 13 points for the Bruins (9-6, 4-2 Pac-10).
"Last year, I was at Arizona watching," said Quinn, who played just 16 games last season before tearing cartilage in her left knee. "I wanted to do so much but I couldn't physically do anything.
"This year, I made it a point to step in and do a lot of stuff for my team."
Kristen Kovesdy had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Sun Devils (12-3, 3-2), who committed a season-high 28 turnovers in losing their second consecutive game. Aubree Johnson tied her season best with 11 points.
"This is pretty hard to swallow," Arizona State coach Charli Thurner Thorne said. "We're not getting enough shots up and we had too many letdowns in transition. We just made horrible decisions for two games."
The Sun Devils brought a nine-game winning streak to Los Angeles before losing 58-50 to USC on Friday. They had not lost consecutive games since March 2004.
Willis and Quinn keyed a 14-0 run that gave UCLA a 32-20 lead with 1:46 left in the first half. Willis had eight points and Quinn added six during the spurt.
"We did a very good job taking care of the ball, which gave us more looks at the basket," UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said.
Arizona State closed to 50-47 with 8:54 to play, but the Bruins used a 13-5 run to extend the lead.
UCLA ended a three-game losing streak to the Sun Devils.
