A poor performance by ASU (10-3, 0-1 Pac-12) offensively, combined with the star power of No. 18 Arizona (12-0. 1-0), led to a 58-53 loss Sunday for the Sun Devils in the first of two territorial cup matchups this season.

After some early-season offensive struggles, ASU scored at least 70 points in each of its prior four games coming into Sunday.

However, those games were not a conference game against the No. 18 team in the country, a team that ranked No. 1 in the nation in both scoring defense and opponents’ field goal percentage coming into Sunday’s game.

The Wildcats limited the Sun Devils to 20-66 (30.3 percent) shooting Sunday including 2-18 from three-point range. ASU also struggled from the free-throw line, going just 11-19.

And while the intensity of a top-ranked defense factored into the offensive struggles, ASU missed makeable shots the entire game.

“…We were getting better, getting better and then I thought this was kind of a step backwards,” ASU coach Charli Thorne stated. “…Good lesson for the younger kids on the team…This league is brutal and you have to be tough and play through everything.”

Four of ASU’s starters struggled offensively the entire game. Guard Robbi Ryan was 1-10 from the field with just five points, leading scorer Ja’Tavia Tapley was 4-12 with just eight points, guard Reili Richardson was 0-9 with two points and Kiara Russell was 1-4.

“…We got great looks and didn’t finish them,” Turner Thorne explained. “And then at times we just weren’t connected and we didn’t get the shots we wanted…U of A is a good defensive team and we knew they would disrupt a little bit…”

The rivalry victory for Arizona was not just about poor offensive play by the Sun Devils. Pac-12 leading scorer Aari McDonald was effective scoring a game-high 20 points on 7-16 shooting while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.

Forward Cate Reese was excellent for the Wildcats as well. The sophomore scored 17 points on 6-14 shooting while grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.

“…With Charli’s style of defense, historically, we can still win games shooting 20 percent from the field as long as we do all the little things that we need to do on defense,” ASU forward Jamie Ruden said. “…Like McDonald going to her left hand and getting to the basket. We knew that was a strength of hers and we didn’t take that away enough so that’s just one example of it.”

It was not all negative for ASU on Sunday. ASU outrebounded UArizona 47-41 and freshman forward Eboni Walker had 12 points on 5-6 shooting and a team-high eight rebounds in her first territorial cup matchup.

“To me it’s just like any game,” Walker said. “I try not to put a special cap on any team or anything like that…You have fans, people cheer for one side, people cheer for the other side. Whoever wins, wins and that’s kind of just that. I know that this was a rival game…gives you a little more enthusiasm but every day I just come and try to do my best…”

The Sun Devils were excellent themselves on defense as they held Arizona to 20-55 (36.4 percent) shooting, over 11 percentage points below Arizona’s average.

The first half was a struggle offensively for both teams with Arizona being limited due to foul trouble. Early in the first quarter, McDonald was called for a foul and later was whistled again with about four minutes to play in the quarter. The early foul trouble for the star guard led to her sitting eight minutes in the first half and scoring just six first half points.

Neither team shot well in the first half with ASU shooting a measly 27.3 percent (9-33) from the field in the first half while Arizona shot 36.7 percent (11-30). The teams were especially bad from three with the Wildcats shooting 1-7 from downtown and the Sun Devils shooting 1-8.

The poor first half offense, which was in part due to tenacious defense from both teams and in part due to missed short-range shots led to a halftime score of 26-22 Arizona.

The second half was more of the same from both teams but McDonald was able to get going scoring 14 of her 20 points between the third and fourth quarters. Reese was huge for the Wildcats as well in the second half. She scored nine of her 17 points after the break while shooting 3-4 from the field and 4-5 from the foul line in the second half.

It looked as though Arizona had the game in hand when McDonald hit a three-pointer with about six minutes left in quarter No. 4 to extend Arizona’s lead to 51-42. With the way ASU had shot the ball up to that point, a nine-point Arizona lead seemed much worse.

However, the Sun Devils did not quit. After the McDonald three-pointer, ASU went on an 8-2 run over the next 3:41 capped off by a Taya Hanson three-pointer to make the score 53-50 with 2:16 to play. After McDonald was fouled and made 1-2 from the free-throw line, a Jayde Van Hyfte free-throw followed by an Iris Mbulito layup cut the score to 54-53 with 1:06 to go in the game.

After Wildcats’ forward Sam Thomas drilled two free throws to make the score 56-53 in favor of Arizona with 0:36 to play, Hanson missed a contested corner three-pointer Turner Thorne was not happy about. The last few seconds consisted of ASU banking on missed free throws to keep its hopes alive but the Sun Devils were the team that ended up missing its free throws. After Thomas was fouled and made 1-2 from the line, Mbulito was fouled on a fast break and missed both of her free throws. With 0:14 to go, there was not much of a chance for ASU and the Sun Devils ended up losing its Pac-12 opener

ASU travels to face another conference juggernaut in No. 10 UCLA on Friday at 8 p.m. MST.