(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
When it comes to Arizona State’s (21-11, 10-8) performance on Thursday evening, hopefully the saying “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” rings true. The Sun Devils fell to the Stanford Cardinal (21-11, 10-8) by a score of 79-58 in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 Tournament.
With 54 seconds left in the first half guard Bo Barnes tied the game at 27 but that’s as close to the lead as the Sun Devils would get all night.
In the first half the Sun Devils got down early for the third straight game as the Cardinal started out the contest on a 9-0 scoring run. Barnes finally offered an answer to the Stanford scoring barrage with a layup five minutes into the game and went on to score 10 points in the first half. Stanford continued to widen its lead to as many as ten points but ASU continued to chip away with threes from Barnes and forward Jonathan Gilling keeping ASU in the game. The Sun Devils went into halftime down just 30-27 despite zero points from Jermaine Marshall or Jahii Carson.
It was more of the same in the second half for the Cardinal. ASU went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to just 51-45 with 8:56 to play but Stanford went on a 27-13 run to close out the contest in dominant fashion. The Sun Devils also didn’t help their own cause with only five made shots from the field over the last nine minutes of the game.
Stanford guard Chasson Randle led the way for the Cardinal with 21 points and four assists while Gilling had 13 points for ASU, 10 of which came in the first half. It was a similar story on the stat line to the Sun Devils’ Feb. 1 date with the Cardinal in Palo Alto. ASU was outrebounded 34-23 while shooting 40 percent from the field and 7 of 21 from behind the arc.
ASU forward Shaquielle McKissic and Barnes contributed 12 points a piece for the Sun Devils and Stanford forward Dwight Powell had 15 points for the Cardinal. Center Jordan Bachynski was left off the court for the last 12 minutes of the game with three fouls and forward Eric Jacobsen also found himself in foul trouble early in the game.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has stated that ASU is in the NCAA Tournament regardless of its Pac-12 Tournament performance. The Sun Devils were on the eight-seed line prior to the loss so it is expected that ASU will drop anywhere from one to three seeds in the NCAA tournament.
CBS will air its Selection Sunday special at 3 p.m. Sunday, where all 68 teams and their seeds are revealed.
You can reach this author via email nkruege1@asu.edu or on Twitter @NickPKrueger
