TEMPE, Ariz. — Kelsey Plum says she’s been working on something called “mistake response.”
When things don’t go right, she said, “drop it and move on.”
She did just that Sunday night.
Plum snapped out of an off shooting night to score 15 points in the fourth quarter and No. 8 Washington pulled away to beat No. 19 Arizona State 65-54 in Pac-12 women’s basketball action.
It was the first time Plum has beaten the Sun Devils in her four college seasons.
“She’s just so tenacious,” Washington coach Mike Neighbors said. “She has that wearing effect on defenses … and she’s so well-conditioned that she’s at the advantage at the end of games.”
Plum, the nation’s leading scorer at 31 points per game, finished with 34 to propel the Huskies (18-2, 6-1 Pac-12) to a road sweep of the Arizona schools and keep them alone in first place in the conference standings.
Reili Richardson scored 11 points for the Sun Devils (13-4, 4-2).
Plum made all six of her fourth-quarter shots and scored eight points in a 10-0 Washington run that made it 61-50 with 2:22 to play.
The senior guard moved from 11th into seventh on the women’s basketball career scoring list with 3,041 points.
Chantel Osahor, the nation’s leading rebounder at 13.5 per game, grabbed 20 boards and scored 10 points for Washington. Arizona State trailed just 51-50 when Kiara Russell scored with 6:02 to play.
But Plum scored eight points in the decisive 10-0 Huskies run.
Down by one at the half, Washington built a 42-36 lead on Katie Collier’s three-point play with 3:26 remaining in the third quarter. But Arizona State responded with an 8-2 run and Robbi Ryan’s 3-pointer tied it at 44 with 32 seconds left. Osahor’s inside basket with seven seconds remaining put the Huskies ahead 46-44 entering the fourth quarter.
Then it was Plum time.
“I try to forget. I have amnesia,” she said. “When the clock struck zero and it was the fourth quarter, I was like ‘Hallelujah, let’s go to work.’”
Plum made just 4 of 14 shots in the first half and was 0-for-5 on 3-pointers. The Huskies, the No. 4 scoring team in the country at 88.5 points per game, were down 25-24 at the half.
“She was getting great shots in the first half so there was no panic from teammates or coaches,” Neighbors said, “just keep getting her the same ones.”
Plum passed some of the college game’s biggest names as she climbed the scoring list on Sunday: Cheryl Miller, Chamique Holdsclaw, Maya Moore and Elena Delle Donne.
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