(Photo: Alex Roddier/WCSN)
While they did not come back from Thursday’s blowout loss to Oregon with a vengeance, the Arizona State Sun Devils (20-9, 11-6 in Pac-12) did earn a hard-fought 74-71 win over the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis on Sunday.
In doing so, the Sun Devils secured the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12, trailing only Washington. The Devils will have a first round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament, meaning they’ll start play on Thursday, March 14.
Freshman guard Luguentz Dort led ASU with 20 points, his seventh straight game in double figures since he scored nine against UCLA on Jan. 26. He hit arguably the most critical shot of the game, a three with under a minute left to put the Devils up four. He hit a season-high four threes on the night.
Dort also hit the clinching pair of free throws in the closing seconds. A potential tying three from OSU’s Stephen Thompson junior missed, giving the Sun Devils the road split and the certainty of their second-place conference finish.
Beyond just Dort, the threes fell for ASU much more in the second half. Trailing 37-30 at the break and hitting only 2-of-9 from deep, the Devils responded with a much more effective scoring attack in the second half. They hit 56 percent of their shots in the second half and went 6-for-11 from long range.
The other nagging problem for the Sun Devils was foul trouble. Five players finished with three or more personal fouls, and De’Quon Lake fouled out with over eight minutes to go. Remy Martin and Romello White also got to four fouls, but avoided reaching the limit.
While Oregon State did capitalize on the fouls, shooting 21-of-27 from tee stripe, the free throws weren’t enough. The Beavers failed to convert a field goal from the 6:28 mark to the 48-second mark, allowing ASU to jump back ahead. The Devils went up 66-64 with about five minutes left and maintained that lead to the final buzzer.
Oregon State leaned heavily on its two biggest names in Tres Tinkle and Ethan Thompson. Tinkle, the Pac-12’s second best scorer by average, put up 24. Thompson had 20 points and 13 boards, five of them offensive.
In addition to the fouls, the Sun Devils played with limited lineup flexibility after freshman forward Taeshon Cherry took a hard fall in the first half and went back to the locker room. Cherry has dealt with concussion issues and the team chose to air on the side of caution after his fall.
While ASU has nothing to play for seeding-wise, there is no extra motivation needed for their final regular season game: A visit to Tucson to play the rival Arizona Wildcats on Friday, March 9.
