Arizona State, Arizona begin Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament

The Arizona State Sun Devils bench reacts to a score against the Colorado Buffaloes at Desert Financial Arena on Feb. 17, 2023.

Tournament play begins for the Pac-12 women this week with Arizona State and Arizona heading to Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.

ASU (1-17) will open the tournament as the No. 12 seed against No. 5 UCLA (11-7) on Wednesday at 1 p.m. MT. The Sun Devils won its first conference game on Thursday in a 75-73 win at Oregon State.

Tyi Skinner finished the season second in scoring in the Pac-12 with 19.0 points per game and averaged the third-most minutes (36.3) in all 27 games. Jaddan Simmons finished second in minutes (36.5) in the conference.

Arizona (11-7) tied with UCLA and USC for fourth after dropping the last two contests at Oregon and OSU, but earned the fourth seed due to the 2-0 record against UCLA and USC. The Wildcats’ Shaina Pellington is fifth in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (54.2 percent).

The Wildcats will play the winner of the ASU and UCLA game to start Thursday’s action at 1 p.m. Arizona time. Arizona holds the league’s second-longest active streak in securing a first-round bye at the tournament.

All 11 contests will be nationally televised, with the first three rounds of action from March this Wednesday through Friday set to air on Pac-12 Networks and the championship game on Sunday to be broadcast on ESPN or ESPN2.

ASU men looking to ride momentum

ASU received a boost following Saturday’s 89-88 win over Arizona and will continue to fight for its postseason hopes.

The Sun Devils (20-9, 11-7) will close out its regular season on the road with UCLA on Thursday at 7 p.m. on ESPN and USC on Sunday at 9 p.m. on FS1.

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