ASU Basketball: Sun Devils overcome sluggish second half to earn second victory of season

(Photo: Zac Pacleb/WCSN)

The Arizona State basketball team snuck away with a 49-39 victory after a very sluggish second half performance against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.

Though the Sun Devils opened on a 10-0 run to start the game and extended their lead to 22 at one point, their lead dwindled to eight with less than two minutes remaining when Wildcats’ guard Mikel Trapp nailed a three-pointer.

Nevertheless, ASU was able to walk away unscathed and advanced to 2-0 on the season.

ASU’s defense was the story of the first half, holding Bethune-Cookman to only two points in the first 10 minutes of play. The Wildcats shot 20.8% from the floor, and were 0-7 from the three-point line in the first 20 minutes. Bethune-Cookman didn’t make its first three pointer until the 16 minute mark in the second half.

On the opposite end, junior Eric Jacobsen was feeling it early, picking up nine of the first 13 Sun Devil points, all of which came from the paint and free-throw line.

“I definitely feel a lot more confident just overall inside and with my offensive game,” Jacobsen said regarding his mentality compared to last season. “We worked a lot with that over the summer and then just being able to go against Jordan (Bachynski) all last year was a big help.”

Jacobsen finished with 13 points to go along with 10 rebounds and four blocked shots, all game-highs.

“I thought we started the game and did a really good job of going inside,” said coach Sendek after the game. “That was a focus for us coming out of our first game and I thought our guys made a concerted effort to do that.”

Despite their big lead at the break, the Sun Devils got off to a sluggish start coming out of halftime, making only one of their first six attempts.

“The second half was played very differently, with them running the weave and taking time off the clock, and playing zone.” said Sendek. “The big problem for us is that we turned it over 19 times.”

Turnovers would be the main point of frustration for the night for Sendek and the Sun Devils, as the 19 committed turnovers is eight more than what they had in their victory over Chicago State on Friday.

“We turned it over in every way possible, run out of bounds and come back in and be the first guy to touch it, catch a ball in the corner and step out of bounds, and so that part was very frustrating,” Sendek said.

Senior guard Bo Barnes tried to escalate the offense in the second half, hitting back-to-back three-pointers. But after he hit his second three with 12:01 left, the ASU did not make another field goal until the 4:07 mark.

Also of note, senior forward Shaquielle McKissic finished with only one point and only attempted two shots.

Player of the Game: Eric Jacobsen

Jacobsen did not get nearly as many touches in the second half as he did the first, but he is what jump-started this ASU offense early on. Nearly everything the Sun Devils got scoring-wise in the first half was run through Jacobsen in the low post.

Stat of the Night

The “Stat of the Night” is also the biggest concern of the game for ASU: 19 turnovers. With only two in the first half, the Sun Devils’ sloppiness in the second half is a big reason why they were not able to settle down and continue to build their lead.

What’s next?

ASU plays Loyola Marymount University on Thursday, November 20 at Wells Fargo Arena. The game will tip-off at 7 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.

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