(Photo: Emma Jeanson/WCSN)
TEMPE — The past week has been an emotional roller coaster for Arizona State men’s basketball, but you wouldn’t know it with the energy in Desert Financial Arena on Saturday.
ASU not only lost to its arch rival then-No. 5 Arizona on Feb. 17, but it was absolutely humiliated in a Territorial Cup record 45-point defeat in Tucson. It seemed like that drubbing carried over to the next game against Washington on Thursday when the Sun Devils were down by 21 at halftime, but they fought back and had a chance to win the game at the end, yet it still was not enough.
The Sun Devils experienced different kinds of demoralizing defeats in that past week, so a matchup with No. 21 Washington State — who entered the game on an eight-game win streak with a win against No. 4 Arizona on Thursday to take the top spot in the Pac-12 — seemed like a recipe for disaster, but it was not.
ASU (14-14, 8-9 Pac-12) was in control for most of the game and pushed the lead out to double digits in the last few minutes to get the 73-61 upset victory over WSU (21-7, 12-5 Pac-12). Despite two consecutive losses, head coach Bobby Hurley sensed the energy in the building.
“The crowd was unbelievable,” Hurley said. “Crowd is — every reason because we didn’t get the job done on Thursday and obviously even the Arizona game — led to start saying ‘you know what, it’s nice out today, it’s sunny, I’m going to go for a hike, I’m going to go play golf, I’m going go get an early dinner.’ Whatever you say on Saturday, but they chose to support our guys. I thought the students were outstanding, their turnout, so very pleased that the crowd was behind us and hoping for a lot of gold in the arena on Wednesday night. Thank you guys.”
The fans were loyal. They didn’t give up, and neither did the Sun Devils.
With 4:40 left in the game and a five-point lead, graduate forward Alonzo Gaffney missed a point-blank layup, but he chased down the rebound and put the ball in the basket to redeem himself. Hurley said the play from Gaffney was “one of the best things” he saw in the game because the veteran did not give up on the play. Neither the players nor the fans gave up, and it culminated in the team’s best victory of the season.
Even though Hurley reverted back to the four-guard starting lineup, it was the forwards like Gaffney and junior Bryant Selebangue that ignited the Sun Devils. The graduate student came out of the halftime break on fire with ASU’s first seven points of the half, which were also his first seven points of the game. Even though the returner did not score in the first half, the bench boss was thrilled with his big man’s performance in the first 20 minutes.
“Actually, when I was in the locker room reviewing the stat sheet, I thought it was like one of the best zero-point halves that I’ve seen,” Hurley said. “He had a couple of assists. He had a steal. He was forcing [fifth year forward Isaac] Jones away from the basket to even make catches. He was getting deflections, so he was putting the heat on defensively. He was engaged. I thought for a guy that didn’t make a shot or score, he had a really good half.”
Selebangue was another spark plug from the frontcourt as he provided nine points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench. The junior started five games at the beginning of the season when sophomore center Shawn Phillips Jr. had a foot injury, but has seen limited action since the sophomore’s return to the rotation.
The Canadian is not expected to be a star on the team, but he knows his responsibilities as a role player and executed it perfectly with four offensive rebounds against the Cougars.
“Same mindset as I do every game,” Selebangue said. “Making sure when I come in, instant energy. I always tell myself something that gets me going is offensive rebounds. Tried to just track it. I had a fan come up to me after the game. He’s like ‘What do you do? What are some of the tactics?’ and I just told him ‘I just try to time it and just evade guys and try to be as agile as possible.’ I’m just gonna bring a spark to the team, get the offensive rebound, kick out or going to score and that’s something I do. That’s my job.”
The frontcourt catalyzed the momentum for the Sun Devils. and it helped the team get their first ranked win and second Quad 1 win of the season. WSU was the first opponent in a four-game gauntlet to end the season as ASU will face Arizona at home on Wednesday followed by a road trip to the City of Angels to play the LA schools to finish the regular season.
ASU knows that it has to win the Pac-12 tournament for any chance at the Big Dance and is confident that it has the pieces to make a run, but that is still a few weeks from now. The focus is on Arizona, who just wiped the floor with the Sun Devils a week ago, but this time it is at home in front of those faithful fans.
The DFA crowd was strong with 9,586 fans making their presence felt with a ranked Cougars’ team in town, so the Territorial Cup is sure to have another packed crowd fueled with momentum after a big win. There are a lot of ASU players that have not played in the rivalry game at home yet, such as Selebangue, but the passion for the rivalry is as prominent as ever.
“They gave us a big speech at the beginning of the year to all of the athletes, and it really put me in perspective of how this rivalry restarted, where it originated from,” Selebangue said. “I’m a competitor, so if I’m coming into ASU, I come here to compete. I’m here to defend ASU pride and I’m going to do whatever it takes. They’re not gonna come in here and step on us or whatever. We’re going to hold our ground down. This is our home. We will protect it.”
