Tag: Arizona State women’s basketball

Charlie Turner Thorne’s ASU women return to fast and familiar form this season

by Bob Young
  • Slug: Sports-ASU Women’s Basketball, about 875 words.
  • 2 Photos attached.

By Nathan Hiatt
Cronkite News

TEMPE – With Kianna Ibis, Courtney Ekmark, Charnea Johnson-Chapman and Sophia Elenga gone from Arizona State’s 2019 NCAA Sweet 16 team, Sun Devil women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne knew this season’s team would be different.

But also fast and familiar.

Turner Thorne said the Sun Devils will be a more perimeter-oriented team this season, and will have to shoot the ball well to succeed. She added, though, that the Sun Devils are deeper, especially at the guard position, which will allow them to play a more typical ASU style.

Continue reading “Charlie Turner Thorne’s ASU women return to fast and familiar form this season”

ASU women learn love of hoops runs deep on Navajo Reservation

by Bob Young
  • Slug: Sports-ASU Rez Ball, 1,681 words
  • Photos available

By SAM FICARRO
Cronkite News

FORT DEFIANCE – For many on the Navajo Reservation, basketball means everything.

The houses in this small northeast Arizona community on the New Mexico border feature a diversity of basketball hoops. White. Black. Gray. Some have rims with no net, others have rims with only part of a net hanging from them. Many are attached above garages, like anywhere else in the country. Some simply protrude from the top of a black metal bar.

All are well-worn. They are symbols of hope for the Navajo people.

“I was told if there’s a basketball hoop, you can just basically play anywhere, and that’s how it is on the Rez,” said Payton Charley, a junior on the girls team at Window Rock High School. “There’s dirt, they still play. If it’s like really muddy, and it’s uneven, they still play. We just have so much love for the game here.”

Continue reading “ASU women learn love of hoops runs deep on Navajo Reservation”