(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)
Lethargic.
That was one of the words that Arizona State Men’s Basketball head coach Bobby Hurley used to describe how his team came out to play Monday night.
The second matchup against Arizona (12-3, 6-3) in the last five days did not start the way ASU (4-8, 1-5) envisioned.
The Wildcats jumped out to an emphatic 10-0 lead while the Sun Devils didn’t notch their first basket until the 13:15 mark, when freshman forward Marcus Bagley converted a layup.
The atrocious offensive slump continued throughout the entire first half for the Sun Devils. ASU finished the frame shooting 8-35 from the field (22.9 percent) and found themselves down 40-18 at the break.
“We lacked energy early in the game,” Hurley said. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting us ready to play early in the game.”
The Sun Devils’ offensive struggles Monday night came as a bit of a surprise based on how the team shot the ball against Arizona on Jan.21. In that game, ASU shot a season-best 52.4 percent (11-21) from 3-point range. On Monday night, the Sun Devils posted a figure close to half that: 25.8 percent (8-31) .
“I thought we took some really challenging shots,” Hurley said. “Our shot selection was not really good.”
However, sophomore forward Jalen Graham provided a bright spot in the first half for ASU.
In his second game back after recovering from mononucleosis, Graham scored eight points and snagged seven rebounds in the first frame. Graham would finish the night with a double-double as he recorded 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“I just had a different mentality coming in,” Graham said about his return. “Now I just want to come back and play hard, get stronger and get better.”
Although the Sun Devils were down big heading into the second half, this was a position that senior guard Remy Martin and his squad were in exactly a year ago.
Back on Jan. 25, 2020, ASU was down 22 points to Arizona, but a late second-half comeback fueled the Sun Devils to a victory.
ASU did its best to try and repeat history. Martin – who had a quiet first half by scoring just three points on just 1-7 shooting – poured in 21 points in the second frame and helped cut down a 26 point Arizona lead to nine with 2:30 left in the game.
Despite ASU’s valiant effort, the Wildcats pulled away in the remaining minutes to hand the Sun Devils their sixth-consecutive loss.
“The bottom line was Arizona was the hungrier team and they were more ready to play right at the start of the game,” Hurley said. “I commend our effort in the second half, but the cabinet is filled with moral victories so I’m not really that enthusiastic that we put together a decent second half. Not many positives to take out of this.”
It was a tough night for a number of players for ASU, but Monday night was especially tough for freshman guard Josh Christopher.
Christopher – who leads all Pac-12 freshmen in scoring with 16.6 points per game – finished the night with a season-low of five points on 1-8 shooting and fouled out in the second half. It was the first time Christopher didn’t register double-digit points this season.
With the absence of Christopher’s normal offensive output, the Sun Devils could not hold off Arizona’s offensive attack. The Wildcats were led by senior guard Terrell Brown Jr. (18 points), junior guard James Akinjo (16 points and six assists) and freshman forward Azuolas Tubelis (16 points and 12 rebounds).
ASU now sits at 1-5 in Pac-12 play with its hopes of going to the NCAA Tournament slowly dwindling away with each loss.
“I think that we are just undisciplined,” Graham said. “We don’t play as hard together, we’re not a team. We need to come into practice, lock in and play as a team. We don’t do that.”
The Sun Devils will look to snap their six-game losing streak Thursday against Cal at 9 p.m. MT. ASU’s only Pac-12 win of the season thus far came against the Golden Bears in Berkeley back on Dec. 3.
