By NICK SHAW

Cronkite News

TEMPE – After an inconsistent first half Monday night, the No. 3 seed Arizona State women’s basketball team found some luck during a 13-point comeback in their 57-54 victory over No. 11 seed Arkansas-Little Rock to advance to the Sweet 16.

“We just all believed,” ASU coach Charli Tuner Thorne said.

With 2 minutes, 11 seconds remaining that faith was fulfilled, when junior guard Elisha Davis banked in a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to narrow UALR’s lead to 50-47.

“Believe,” Davis said.  “That’s all that was running through my head, believe, and that was God.  That’s why that went in.”

“Elisha Davis practices deep threes,” coach Thorne said.  “She probably shot 30 of those (Sunday) in practice and some in shoot-around.  It’s amazing when you get to that situation and then just have confidence.”

During the first half, ASU’s inside shots were not falling and the team found themselves down 46-33 with just over nine minutes remaining in the game.  That is when senior guard Promise Amukamara hit a 3-pointer that sparked the comeback.

“I think we just needed to take our time on the shot,” Amukamara said.  “We were getting, not wide open, but contested two-footers and we just needed to take our time and make those shots. But we knew we were going to make them in the second half, so that’s what we did.”

UALR’s coach Joe Foley felt the game begin to slip away as ASU continued to chip away at the 13-point lead his team had built, with some help from the home crowd.

“I think they just wore us down,” Foley said.  “I felt like they were going to pound us the whole game with their size, and that was the difference.  We just didn’t have enough energy to stay with it.  We don’t have the depth that they had and we are playing on their home floor and the home crowd picked them up. It’s a huge advantage.”

Next up, Arizona State will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina, where they will face No. 2 seed Florida State on Friday, March 27 in the Greensboro Regional Semifinal.