(Photo: Spencer Barnes/ WCSN)
Nine minutes into the biggest game in his Sun Devil tenure, Moe Odum scanned the court looking for a hole in the press. He found one and sprinted past Bulldog defenders at the half-court line before pulling up at the top of the arc. He walked into his shot would confidence, knocking down his second made three-pointer of the game, putting ASU ahead 20-17. Unfortunately for Odum and the Sun Devils, that would be the last time they would lead in their 77-65 loss to No. 19 Gonzaga.
ASU (2-1) trailed for the final 28 minutes of the game, impressing in bursts, but never drawing even with the Bulldogs (4-0). Poor shooting, fouls, and problems in the paint would prove too much to overcome for head coach Bobby Hurley’s team.
“We script the first three possessions of the game,” Hurley said. “Then you start getting substitutions, different lineups. Then we got stuck on 20 [points] too long. I told the guys that we just had bad possessions.”
After the Sun Devils reached 20 points, Gonzaga went on a 13-0 run behind forward Graham Ike’s performance. The graduate student used his experience and size to outclass ASU’s freshman center Massamba Diop.
Ike led his team with 20 points and two blocks while holding Diop to just two points in the first half. Gonzaga wasn’t able to keep ASU’s leading scorer quiet for the whole game. He finished with 11 points and a few electric plays, but it was too little, too late. Despite the disappointing performance in the first-ranked test of his career, he still has the confidence of his teammates, especially junior guard Bryce Ford.
“Massamba, he’s a great player, but things just weren’t going his way tonight,” Ford said. “I feel he’s a great player. He’s going to get back, I know he is. I know the type of kid he is, and he’s a real high character himself.”
With Diop only pulling down four rebounds, the burden fell to forward Santiago Trouet. For a second straight game, the redshirt sophomore pulled down double-digit boards. Nine of his 11 total rebounds were in the first half; the rest of his team had five.
Losing the rebounding battle 45-31 is a recipe for disaster, and Ford feels like he and the other guards have a share in the blame.
“I feel like we could go help some of our bigs,” Ford said. “Tyon Grant-Foster, he’s really good at offensive rebounds, and he’s cracking down all the time, same with all their guards and with Adam, all of them. So I feel like we can help stop that, and if we have five men boxing out and going to get the board, I feel like we come up with it.”
Rebounding wasn’t the only spot where the Bulldogs dominated; they also shot 6.9% higher from the field and 20.6% better from the free-throw line.
Gonzaga’s talent and defensive composure have been enough to keep every team they’ve played beneath 70 points, but Ford feels that the Sun Devils did some of the damage to themselves.
“I feel like they’re a real disciplined team,” Ford said. “But we definitely could hit more shots than we did, missed some open ones they gave us. Against a good team like that, we have to capitalize on making open shots, because we might never see them again.”
As much as anywhere else, they struggled shooting outside the arc. Despite shooting 29.4% in the first half, Ford said they “fell in love with the three point” while also reaffirming their need to score in transition.
No one fell in love with the three more than Moe Odum, who took 11 of his 15 shots from behind the arc. Despite this, he scored just 12 points in the nearly 37 minutes he played. Hurley said Noah Meeusen’s absence forced him to leave Odum on the court more than he would like.
“We’re not as deep as I hoped we would be at this point,” Hurley said.
Gonzaga’s bench outscored ASU’s 28-15, and all nine of its players logged at least 13 minutes. Adding to the depth issues was the Sun Devils foul trouble. They committed 23 personal fouls, including two technical fouls. The first tech came from Trouet after he stared down Jalen Warley following his block over the Bulldog guard. Minutes later, came ASU’s second technical. This time it wasn’t a player, but coach Hurley.
Hurley is known for his moments of frustration, so it was no surprise when he yelled at the ref following an Ike block over Diop. He wanted a shooting foul but left with a tech the other way instead.
Despite the chaos, the Sun Devils were still able to remain competitive with a highly ranked opponent. They only trailed by nine points with six and a half minutes left and gave Gonzaga its closest contest of the season. Ford agreed that this could be a moral victory and a hint at ASU’s long-term potential.
“There was a lot of positives in this game,” Ford said. “But at the same time, there’s some negatives that we do still need to clean up. But, for being such a new group of guys and having to gel together so fast, I say we have a lot of potential. And, I will say we are a tournament team.”
