Arizona State rallies its way into the Sweet 16

Arizona State, which erased a 15-point deficit Saturday, repeated itself Monday night in the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

Briann January scored 22 points on eight-for-12 shooting and the Sun Devils, despite missing their first 15 shots and again falling behind by 15 points, rallied to defeat Louisville, 67-58, at the Galen Center.

The Pacific 10 Conference runners-up, seeded third, reached the round of 16 for the second time in three years and will play second-seeded Vanderbilt or seventh-seeded Bowling Green on Saturday at Greensboro, N.C.

Arizona State (30-4) ended the game with a 31-8 run after outscoring UC Riverside, 28-6, over the last 13 1/2 minutes Saturday.

“I’ve got a new nickname for our team: We’re the comeback kids,” Arizona State Coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “We really haven’t done this all year -- we haven’t dug ourselves a hole and then dug out....

“So I’m just elated. I could not be prouder of our team.”

Emily Westerberg scored 12 points for the Sun Devils, who made 51.7% of their shots in the second half after making 20.7% in the first.

“I think you just saw the toughness of our team,” Westerberg said. “We just battled. We were positive and confident with ourselves.

“We knew there was going to be a point where we were going to turn around because of our defense.”

It didn’t hurt that sixth-seeded Louisville (27-8) played much of the game without Big East Conference player of the year Angel McCoughtry, who got into early foul trouble and scored only seven points in 20 minutes before fouling out.

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George Washington 59, Texas A&M; 47 -- Kimberly Beck scored 18 points to lead the Colonials past the Big 12 Conference champions.

“The shots just came and they fell,” said Beck, who made six of 12 shots, three of seven from beyond the three-point arc, and helped the Atlantic 10 Conference champions to their 21st victory in 22 games.

The fifth-seeded Colonials (28-3) will play top-seeded North Carolina or ninth-seeded Notre Dame in the regional semifinals Sunday at Dallas.

Takia Starks scored 16 points to lead fourth-seeded Texas A&M; (25-7).

jerome.crowe@latimes.com