ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils miss countless opportunities in loss to Sacramento State

(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)

While Friday night’s matchup versus Sacramento State tipped off a new era of Sun Devil basketball under Bobby Hurley, the result was not one that brought too much excitement. The dawn of a new era brought the Sacramento State Hornets to Wells Fargo Arena, and they managed to spoil Hurley’s welcome by knocking off the Sun Devils 66-63.

“It was not the way I wanted to start things here,” Hurley said. “It was an embarrassing loss for us and I just think we have to execute better, obviously got to play better, I thought we were nervous.”

ASU jumped out to a quick 15-6 lead thanks to the play of some familiar faces atop the scoring column.

The first, and maybe the most expected, was senior guard Gerry Blakes. He finished with 11 points in the first half, and as projected, got the offense going with his fearless rim-attacking.

Junior forward Savon Goodman was the other returning player to contribute early, scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds coming off of the bench.

“Any time you sit for a few weeks you lose everything that you kind of have built up,” Hurley said of Goodman’s limited minutes.

But the first half came with little to cheer about offensively other than those two. In a six-minute stretch the Sun Devils turned the ball over three times, missed six shots in a row, and only made two of their last 12 attempts.

One of the biggest holes to fill on the stat sheet this season is going to be the three-point shooting after losing their three best shooters from beyond the arc. This was no exception to the first half drought, as the Sun Devils missed all eight of their attempts from downtown in the first 20 minutes.

“In the first half there were some (three point attempts) that were contested that I didn’t like,” Hurley said. “I thought Andre Spight had some good looks in the second half, shots that he’ll make in his career here that didn’t go down. And when you’re in a game where you’re down three you’re looking to try and obviously get a three-point shot.”

Spight was 1-for-8 for the game and 0-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Meanwhile Sacramento State made six of seven attempts from beyond the arc, and found themselves holding a 29-23 lead over the Sun Devils at the intermission.

A large reason as to why Sacramento State pulled themselves back into the game after being down for the first 12:18 of the game was their ball screen action. Hornets’ sophomore point guard Marcus Graves was getting to the basket at will, and when a Sun Devil defender would step up to help, there was no one to help the helper, which led to countless easy buckets.

“We just got too spread out and guys were just worried about their man too much,” senior center Eric Jacobsen said. “Collectively we’ve got to get better at help-side.”

Sacramento State’s 2-3 zone was also causing ASU plenty of problems, but in the second half ASU wasn’t settling for jumpers anymore. The Sun Devils attacked the windows in the zone and made five of their first seven shots of the second half, tying the game at 33.

The first three-pointer of the game (and of the season) for ASU came at the 14:41 mark in the second half, from senior forward Willie Atwood in his sweet spot in the corner. After a scoreless first half in which Atwood only attempted one shot, he scored 11 of ASU’s first 19 second-half points.

“It’s no surprise that he (Atwood) had 11 and 11 because he has been playing at a high level since I have been there and he works at it every day,” Hurley said.

Atwood finished the game with a double-double, the first of his Sun Devil career.

En route to building the first double-digit lead of the game, ASU made four shots in a row and three Sun Devils reached double figure scoring. Blakes was the only scorer in double-digits at halftime, and the next highest scorer was Goodman with five.

Graves kept Sacramento State in the game, finishing nearly everything at the rim even with contact. One self-inflicting facet of ASU’s game was at the free throw line, where other than Holder they were far less than acceptable. Around halfway through the second half, Holder was 6-for-7 from the charity stripe, while the rest of the team was 3-for-10.

“Obviously any time that you shoot that way from the free throw line you’re not going to have very much success, regardless of who your opponent is,” Hurley said.

With six minutes remaining and ASU in command of an eight-point lead, Blakes was issued a technical for arguing with an official due to a foul called on Jacobsen. Sacramento State was given four free throw attempts but would only make two, making it 55-49 ASU.

“I have to look at it. I didn’t see it,” Hurley said of the sequence. “I was just told that Gerry was tangled up with one of their players and the result was he instigated contact and a technical foul.”

Opportunities continued to be left hanging by ASU to pull away, as they approached crunch time they shot 14-for-25 from the free throw line and only 2-for-15 from three, which is a big reason as to why the Sun Devils only led by two when the final media timeout was taken at the 3:36 mark.

Coming out of the timeout, both teams traded buckets for four straight possessions, and the Hornets took a three-point lead with a minute remaining after a Graves jumper from the free throw line. Graves was freed up by a ball screen, something that ASU struggled to defend all night. Graves finished with 20 points, four rebounds, and five assists.

Holder managed to get to the rim with 25 seconds remaining to pull ASU within one, but senior guard Cody Demps knocked down two free throws to extend the lead back to three. Demps was a large part of the late surge by the Hornets, and he finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.

A last second heave by Gerry Blakes was off the mark, and the Hurley era got off to a start that nobody expected.

 

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