(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
After handing Oregon State its first Pac-12 loss of the season, ASU completed its sweep of the Oregon schools on Saturday, using a 19-0 run in the second half to top Oregon 78-64.
Zylan Cheatham led the Sun Devils with 19 points and the highlight play of the night, but it was Taeshon Cherry who provided the Sun Devils with the spark off the bench. The freshman finished with 15 points on 5-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
“Once I hit the first one, I was like ‘I’m going to let it fly every time I have daylight,'” Cherry said. “And I let it fly every time.”
Cherry’s hot night was a product of the barrage of three-pointers hoisted throughout the contest. The teams settled behind the three-point line from the opening tip, combining for 10 three-point attempts in the first 10 minutes of action. By halftime, the two sides shot 26 times from behind the arc.
The Ducks were seemingly going to go into halftime facing a 39-36 deficit, before guard Payton Pritchard sunk a three-pointer off the glass as the first half buzzer rang. Until then, Oregon had been on a cold spell, a sign of things to come in the second half.
Pritchard took the inbound pass on the last play of the half, dribbled down the court and knocked down the basket as time expired, sending the teams to the locker room tied at 39-all.
Coming out of the locker room, the Ducks had gained a 54-50 lead with 8:37 in the game, seemingly ready to take control. However, it was ASU that took over.
The Sun Devils used a flurry of defensive stops and three-pointers to finish the game on a 25-10 run, which was kicked off by a Cherry three to make it a 54-53 game.
“Taeshon stepped up and hit a big three,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said.
“It was a momentum swing,” Cherry said. “We couldn’t really get over the hump and once we got over the hump, I knew we were going to break it open.”
The following possession, the Sun Devil defense forced a stop and Kimani Lawrence followed suit with a three of his own to give ASU a 56-54 lead. From then on, ASU was in control, using a 19-0 run to take a 69-54 lead.
“Those two threes put us over the hump and we broke it open,” Cherry said.
“Really just as good of a 10 minutes as we’ve played probably all season,” Hurley said. “Very enthusiastic about what I watched tonight from the guys.”
When the final horn sounded, Oregon had flipped the script of their first half, which saw them shoot 42.9 percent from three. The Ducks went ice cold in the second half and shot just 25.7 percent from the field.
Arguably the play of the night came almost four minutes into the second half with ASU trailing 44-42. Cheatham received a pass in the low post and spun towards the baseline. When Cheatham rounded the corner, he took a dribble and saw one Oregon defender in his way of the rim: former ASU commit Kenny Wooten.
“Once I spun baseline, I seen daylight,” Cheatham said. “Me and Kenny, it was either I go through his chest or go over him.”
Cheatham elected to go over the 6-foot-9 sophomore, slamming home a thunderous dunk that sent Wells Fargo Arena into a frenzy.
“I feel like I made the right decision,” Cheatham said.
ZYLAN GOT WAYYYY 🆙 pic.twitter.com/f0vVSuTg7D
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) January 20, 2019
“It’s one of the better ones that I’ve seen,” Hurley said. “I know there were a lot of games today, but I’m not sure that there’s going to be anything that would be as good as that that would not put that at the top of the SportsCenter Top 10. It was one of my favorite plays of the season.”
While it remains to be seen how the dunk and the subsequent run will truly impact the big picture of the season, the Sun Devils find themselves No. 3 in the Pac-12, quite the change from the letdowns they faced just weeks ago. They return to action on Jan. 24 when they travel to UCLA.
