ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils take opener against Portland 76-60

(Photo: Dom Contini/WCSN)

The road to March Madness has begun.

Tuesday evening, head coach Bobby Hurley led Arizona State Men’s Basketball onto the floor at Desert Financial Arena to battle the Portland Pilots from the WCC. This marked the Sun Devils’ first official game of their 2021-2022 campaign, and with a non-conference schedule that boasts a handful of tests to prepare the team for a stacked Pac-12 Conference this season, Hurley’s new group started things on a positive note, defeating Portland 76-60.

In his seventh year at the helm in Tempe, Hurley has been the beneficiary of many transfers for this season, three of whom found themselves in the starting lineup Tuesday.

Junior guard Luther Muhammad and junior forward Alonzo Gaffney joined the Sun Devils after initially committing and competing for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Marreon Jackson, a graduate transfer from Toledo, however, was the most coveted of Hurley’s roster moves, as he was rewarded MAC Player of the Year honors last season and seemed primed to be a key figure in ASU’s backcourt.

Joining these three at the start of Tuesday’s matchup were two Sun Devil returnees, fifth-year forward Kimani Lawrence and sophomore forward Marcus Bagley. These two played substantial minutes for Hurley in the 2020-2021 COVID-restricted season, and for Bagley, the battle with Portland provided him his first collegiate experience in front of fans.

“It felt good to be out there with fans. It’s been two years since I played a game in front of fans,” the Phoenix native said.

Coming into the night, both teams had comfortably won their exhibition matches and were eager to play a game that would count in the win-loss column. In fact, it seemed as if they may have been too excited to hit the floor for their opening matchup.

Through the first four minutes of play, both teams combined for a squeamishly low seven points.

Within the contest’s first 60 seconds, Portland’s fifth-year guard Jack Perry sunk a right-wing three to break the ice, followed by a quick response from ASU’s Muhammad with a short-corner jumper. One of Portland’s true freshman, 6-foot-10 forward Vasilije Vucinic, would then finish a high-percentage layup on the right block. In defending Vucinic, Gaffney overplayed the Portland forward’s post position and Lawrence’s backside rotation was too delayed to keep Vucinic from his only points of the game.

Despite finding himself in the starting lineup, Vucinic’s struggles against the Sun Devils’ interior size restrained his minutes to just 15 on the evening. Alongside Lawrence and Gaffney, Hurley reeled in 6-foot-10 freshman big Enoch Boakye to help reinforce the Sun Devils’ presence inside. In speaking with reporters postgame, Lawrence commented on the new dynamic Hurley’s interior additions bring to the team.

“It’s just a testament of Hurley bringing in some size to help us out this year,” Lawrence said. “That was one of our weaknesses last year and he addressed that. [Crashing the boards] is something we focus on in practice and I’m glad it carried over to the game.”

The Pilots’ 5-2 lead stood still for nearly four minutes of action, under which ASU fired a notable amount of missed shots from deep. Over the course of the first 20 minutes, ASU would put up 14 three-point attempts with only two falling through for points. Surprisingly, the Sun Devils’ starting backcourt in Jackson and Muhammad contributed to more than half of the team’s missed threes, combining for an unpleasant 0-7 from the perimeter.

After the game, Hurley laid his take on the team’s offensive performance in the first half.

“We shot way too many threes early in the first half, too many quick ones, too,” Hurley said. “I think our best ones come off drive-and-kicks and some of them were just early before there were any passes so the success rate on those type of shots are not great.”

The slow starts from both offenses really characterized the flow of the first-half, given the score at half was just 31-25. Nevertheless, a respective scoring run on both sides took the game into halftime.

Up 26-16, the Sun Devils surrendered a 9-0 burst to the Pilots offense. The first points were initiated by a mistaken save by Muhammad under Portland’s basket, which fell right into the awaiting hands of Portland redshirt junior guard Chris Austin, who quickly slammed down a wide-open flush. From there, junior transfer forward Kristian Sjolund came off a pin-down to net a wide-open wing three, Austin finished a tough two over the long arms of Bagley, and Perry grabbed a steal that resulted in a mid-range jumper on the other end for junior transfer guard Mike Meadows.

Portland’s unanswered scoring run was finally interrupted by the Sun Devils, who closed out the final moments of the half with a scoring run of their own.

Jackson put forth a quick drive to the free throw line before kicking to Bagley for the Sun Devils’ second three-point make of the period. Then, following some empty possessions for both teams, Jackson made his presence felt once more with a steal and makeshift jumper at the buzzer to send ASU into the locker room with a six-point lead.

The ending to the half marked the bright spot for ASU in a frame that saw it struggle to put up points. It was very successful at forcing turnovers, though, as the length and athletic ability within Hurley’s rotation proved effective on the defensive side of the ball, taking away 15 possessions from Portland in the first half.

By the end of the game, the Sun Devils had elevated that total to 21.

Coming out of the locker room, ASU quickly settled into the second-half on both ends of the floor.

Offensively, it came out hot, netting 12 points through the first three minutes. This success was fueled by Lawrence’s aggressiveness in the paint – he had two straight finishes at the rim, one off the block and the other on a fast-break.

In a way, Lawrence’s quick successes on the inside seemed to ease the flow of the Sun Devils’ offense, eventually opening up opportunities for others to contribute. Over the half, Lawrence, Gaffney, Bagley, and sophomore guard DJ Horne outpaced their first-half scoring numbers, explaining the team’s heightened output on that end of the floor in the second period.

Each of these four along with Muhammad finished the contest in double-figures for ASU. Considering their slow start, Hurley took it as a somewhat of a good omen for the Sun Devils moving forward.

“To score 76 the way we played and the way we shot it is a really good sign,” Hurley said. “I don’t think there’s going to be too many nights where Luther and Marreon go 1-11 from three. That’s not what I’ve been watching through the whole summer and fall. I think there’s some positives you can take from it.”

Behind their increased production offensively and a continuing energy to defend, the Sun Devils controlled the second half of the match, maintaining a double-digit deficit for the majority of the 20 minutes.

After pulling out the victory, ASU looks to progress and improve as it heads into their next non-conference matchup against UC Riverside at Desert Financial Arena on Thursday at 6:30 p.m MST.