It was an ugly one last Sunday for ASU women’s basketball as the team dropped its first road game of the season to Minnesota; now the Sun Devils return home to face mid-major Cal Poly at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said the game against the Golden Gophers was “everything just biting us in the butt.” She said her team needs to improve in practice but said she was glad a loss took place early in the season due to her team’s youth and inexperience.

Turner Thorne pointed out how injured her team has been so far this season saying she is not sure she has even had a full roster for a practice. She also said she is still figuring out how to communicate with her team and said she did not go about her halftime adjustments the right way against the Gophers.

“Minnesota played really well,” senior guard Robbi Ryan said. “They had a great crowd and obviously we didn’t play our best…we weren’t really connected. So, it was kind of a good wakeup call of making sure we’re focused and locked in and ready to go every single game and even every day and every practice. Just to build those habits and they’ll show up in the games.”

On Sunday Cal Poly heads to Tempe as the Sun Devils go back to facing mid-majors after the loss to the Lindsey Whalen coached Gophers, a team ranked No. 23 to start the season.

The game is the annual Native American Heritage game the Sun Devils host every year.

Cal Poly is coming off of a season in which the Mustangs had the worst winning percentage (28.6) in the 21-year career of coach Faith Minaugh.

The Mustangs, members of the Big West conference, have only competed in Division 1 since the 1995-96 season and have just one NCAA tournament appearance (2013).

This season, Cal Poly has started the season with three double-digit losses to Fresno State, Pepperdine, and Denver before blowing out Sacramento State, 62-43 on Nov. 20. Opponents are outscoring the Mustangs on average 70.3-58.3 this year.

The Mustangs are led by Australian freshman Abbey Ellis. The 5’5 point guard is averaging 16.8 points per game, 4.3 assists per game and is shooting 93.3 percent from the free-throw line.

Cal Poly also features a player familiar with ASU.

Redshirt-Junior transfer Sierra Campisano transferred from Pac-12 power Oregon before last season and is seeing her first action with the Mustangs this season after sitting out last year due to NCAA transfer rules.

The 6’3 forward played four minutes in the Ducks’ loss to the Sun Devils on Feb. 5, 2017.

Now at Cal Poly, Campisano is averaging 15 points per game and a team-high 9.5 rebounds in four games.

Completing the “big three” for the Mustangs is 6’4 Michigan State transfer, Hana Vesela. The Czech power forward has missed the last two games of the season but played over 30 minutes in the Mustangs’ first two games scoring 14 points while grabbing seven boards against Fresno State on Nov. 6 and scoring 11 points and grabbing five rebounds at Pepperdine on Nov. 10.

The Mustangs are a huge team, featuring six players 6’1 or above. They average 39.5 rebounds per game and despite three of their first four games being blowouts, they are outrebounding opponents by 2.5 rebounds per game.

However, despite being undersized, ASU is averaging 47 rebounds per game while holding opponents to 31.7.

ASU continues to see great things out of USC graduate-transfer Ja’Tavia Tapley. After her 18 points, six rebounds and four steals in 15 minutes against Army, she put up 16 points and 8 rebounds in 23 minutes in the loss to the Golden Gophers last Sunday.

Tapley is leading the team in field-goal percentage (66.7), free-throw percentage (86.7), rebounds per game (7.3) and points per game (15.0).

“She’s getting better every game,” Turner Thorne explained. “It’s kind of amazing sometimes the things that she does…I think the biggest thing for Tap is just consistency and discipline on the defensive end especially…”

ASU will again be without key senior forward Jamie Ruden due to a foot injury. Ruden missed her homecoming game against Minnesota as well as most of the second half against Army.