(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
In their final home game of the season, the Arizona State Sun Devils couldn’t pull off the upset win over their in-state rivals, falling to No. 7 Arizona, 73-60.
ASU head coach Bobby Hurley was disappointed by the loss but still proud of his team’s performance:
“The objective is always in these kind of games, that mean so much to a lot of people, is to try and win them,” Hurley said. “We were in the game in the first half and I thought our defense was fairly consistently good. Overall we fought hard and we just didn’t have a great night on the [offensive] end of the floor and Arizona had a lot to do with that.”
The first half was a back and forth affair, with neither team able to get much going offensively. Arizona (16-2) held the lead for the majority of the first and got off to a solid start with a 5-0 run off the tip. Midway through the first, ASU (14-17) got on a run of their own, outscoring Arizona 8-2 over a three-minute span, capped off by a three pointer from ASU junior guard Kodi Justice that pulled the Sun Devils within one.
A few minutes later the Sun Devils would go on an 11-3 run to take their first lead of the game after a made free throw from senior forward Obinna Oleka with just over two minutes remaining in the half. Neither team scored a field goal in the first after that, with a free throw by Arizona junior forward Keanu Pinder with 19 seconds remaining giving the Wildcats a one-point lead going into halftime.
“I thought we could have possibly had a lead at the half if we had executed on some free throw shooting and made a few extra shots,” Hurley said. “We were getting stops and we just couldn’t get over the hump to get a little cushion going into the second half.
It was senior night for the Sun Devils and seniors Torian Graham and Obinna Oleka, both received a warm reception before the game. Oleka failed to record his 15th double-double of the season with just 9 points and 11 rebounds.
Graham had a relatively poor shooting performance on the day, going just 4 of 14 from the field. He did fair better in the second half, scoring 10 points and nailing a pair of threes.
“I had a lot of jitters at the beginning,” Graham said. “But I was focused on the game more than senior night. I’ve been through a lot in life so it’s good to get settled in and call this place my home.”
Arizona began the second half with an 8-0 run, which crushed the Sun Devils momentum and set the tone for the rest of the game. ASU would never pull any closer than eight points down and shot an abysmal 28.6 percent from the floor in the final twenty.
“They came out and hit a couple big shots,” Justice said. “We got a couple good looks and didn’t make them and they just kept going. It felt like the energy we had in the first half wasn’t there in the second half…they just kept making more plays and hitting shots on the other end.”
Justice was the only Sun Devil to shoot better than 33 percent in the game and lead the team with 17 points while shooting 60 percent from the floor and hitting four treys.
“If you would have told me we would have kept them to [73] points with our offensive firepower, I’d have said we had a good chance,” Justice said. “I felt like we guarded well enough but they’re a really good defensive team. They made us struggle a little bit and miss shots that we usually make but if we had come out with our A game on offensive we would have had a good shot to win this game.”
Four different Wildcats scored in double figures with sophomore guard Allonzo Trier leading the way with 19 points. Arizona freshman Lauri Markkanen was also a huge contributor, especially on the defensive end with nine rebounds and three spectacular blocks that absolutely demoralized the Sun Devils.
“Their bigs moved fairly well on their hedging and their switching and we didn’t make the plays off the dribble that I thought we could,” Hurley said. “Outside of Kodi [Justice]…we just had an off night across the board with scoring and some of it was Arizona, a big team with length. It was just unfortunate we couldn’t do a better job on offense.”
With the victory, Arizona sweeps the season series with ASU, and if Oregon loses at Oregon State later today, then Arizona will claim the Pac-12 regular season title.
ASU will next play in the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas starting on March 8.
