ASU finds its groove, advances to Elite Eight

Charli Turner Thorne always knew this day would come. Even when her first four Arizona State women’s basketball teams had losing records. Even when the only postseason letters ASU knew were NIT. Even when there was nothing to hold onto but belief itself.

And now here the Sun Devils are, in the Elite Eight for the first time in school history after their blowout 67-49 victory over Bowling Green Saturday.

“We took the next step officially today,” Turner Thorne said.

Coming up Monday: A date with fourth-seeded Rutgers, with the winner going to the Final Four. It’s the biggest moment in ASU athletics since Pat Murphy’s baseball team rallied to beat Cal-State Fullerton in the 2005 Super Regional to move on to the College World Series.

The game will be a bittersweet experience for the Sun Devils. They’ll certainly be happy they don’t have to face No. 1 Duke in its backyard, but Rutgers will bring back memories of the death of Aubree Johnson’s younger brother, Jordan.

Jordan, who was 15, died while ASU was in the Virgin Islands in November for the Paradise Jam tournament. Its game that night was cancelled.

ASU’s opponent: Rutgers.

“A lot of our players and people in the ASU family think that it might be fate the game will happen,” Turner Thorne said.

The Sun Devils, who endured after Jordan Johnson’s death and survived the season-ending loss of freshman guard Dymond Simon to a knee injury, took another sucker punch Saturday morning.

About 30 minutes before the game, Turner Thorne told the team that sophomore guard Briann January wouldn’t be able to play because she was still feeling the after-effects of a minor concussion she suffered Monday against Louisville.

January cried. Her teammates, who had been warned about the possibility Friday, hung their heads.

“It definitely was a blow,” junior Jill Noe said. “Bree has carried us on her shoulders.”

Turner Thorne, who knew she had to get back to business so as to the minimize the news, walked up to the greaseboard and wrote D.O. in the starting lineup.

Danielle Orsillo’s reaction?

“I was shocked,” said the sophomore guard. . . . “It was a little nerve wracking. You just remind yourself it’s a game like any other game.”

Sure, a chance to go to the Elite Eight. To come within 40 minutes of the Final Four.

That’s just like a January night against Washington State.

Turns out, that’s exactly what it was for Orsillo.

She made her first six field goal attempts and finished with a game-high 16 points, three rebounds and two assists. It was a January-like performance in March.

Orsillo wasn’t the only Sun Devil to crank up her game. ASU, the No. 3 seed, made just 38 of 107 field goal attempts (35.5 percent) in its first two tournament games, but it hit 50.9 percent of its shots Saturday and was 17 of 28 in the first half when it took a 40-24 lead.

“We told coach before we left to get on the plane that we had packed our offense for this trip, and it proved to be true,” said senior Emily Westerberg, who had 15 points and eight rebounds.

When ASU missed its first 15 shots against Louisville, Turner Thorne said she wouldn’t comment on what she was thinking.

But she was happy to verbalize her thoughts Saturday.

“Hallelujah,” she said. “I know that we tried a little too hard in the first couple of rounds, but I knew that we would eventually start playing our basketball and start getting our offense going.

“We’ve been great shooters all year, and I was confident.”

And now, with Duke eliminated, ASU is the highest-seeded team left in the regional. The Final Four, which seemed an impossibility after ASU lost to Stanford for the third time this season in the Pac-10 tournament, is 40 minutes away.

Cleveland in March?

Sounds like paradise to ASU.