ASU Men’s Basketball: Buffaloes down Sun Devils, 75-57 in ASU return to play

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

Over 7,500 fans in attendance at Desert Financial Arena for Saturday night’s matchup between Arizona State (5-9) and Colorado (12-4) were witness to a Sun Devil legend being forever cemented in the rafters of Desert Financial Arena; Ike Diogu.

As Diogu stood at half court gazing at the ceiling during halftime, his signature yellow No. 5 jersey was unrolled and hung next to the other ASU greats who donned the maroon and gold.

Arizona State fans happily rose to their feet and cheered, honoring Diogu. However, that would be one of the last times the Sun Devil fans would get the urge to stand and cheer, as Arizona State fell to Colorado 75-57, behind a poor second-half shooting performance.

Was the loss a product of the team’s inconsistent scheduling due to COVID-19 protocols? Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley didn’t put all of the blame on that, but did say that it had an impact.

“They were juiced about playing because it’s been so long, but we just didn’t have a lot of gas in the tank,” Hurley said. “The second half they hit some shots and got some confidence, and we couldn’t really cut into their lead again.”

As soon as the ball was tipped, it looked as if Colorado was facing an Arizona State squad that hadn’t seen the floor in over 12 days. Almost immediately the Buffaloes leading scorer, sophomore forward Jabari Walker, was able to get into a groove, scoring the first six points of the game. His play sparked a 15-3 run by the Buffaloes to open up the first half.

However, Arizona State countered with a 12-1 run of their own, to cut the Buffaloes lead to only one point nine minutes into the game. Four of ASU’s 12 points during that run came from the hands of junior forward Jalen Graham.

Graham was questionable prior to the game with a non-COVID illness, but saw meaningful minutes in a first half that saw the Sun Devils only down three points at the break, 37-34.

“It felt great to be back out there with my teammates, just playing the game with all of the COVID stuff going on,” said Graham, who was able to put up 11 points in nine minutes of first half play.

“Jalen Graham was a positive for us, more particularly in the first half with his production on offense,” Hurley said. “We need guys to show signs of scoring the ball so that was good to see from (Graham) off of one day’s practice.”

In the second half, Graham was only able to notch five points, in what was a poor second half of shooting for the entire Arizona State team. His 16 points set a career-high in ASU’s losing effort.

The Sun Devils shot 31 percent from the field in the second frame, only making nine of their 29 taken shots. On the other hand, the Buffaloes shot 39 percent from the field, but really put the game out of reach with their shooting from beyond-the-arc, going 6-13.

Walker led the Buffaloes in the second half with nine points, and ended with the game-high of 18.

“The second half we got really spread out I thought. We were trying to be more efficient staying in gaps in the first half and we got spread out, and the guards were driving and throwing the ball to wide open shooters,” Hurley said. “They gained some confidence with that and as the half progressed we just didn’t have another response.”

Arizona State has the opportunity to respond quickly, as they host the Utah Utes (8-9) on Monday, Jan. 17 at 2:00 p.m.