(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
It’s often been said that anything goes in a rivalry game. But Thursday’s ‘Part Two’ of the 2017-18 men’s basketball Territorial Cup left ASU with an all too familiar result.
The No. 17 Arizona Wildcats defeated No. 25 Arizona State 77-70 Thursday night in a packed Wells Fargo Arena.
“I feel like we emptied the tank,” coach Bobby Hurley said. “I thought it was an entertaining game to watch, I thought it was a high-level game at times. I think both teams competed really hard, so it was a fun game to be a part of.”
Hurley’s crew wasn’t having fun in the early stages of the first half, as the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-2 lead. Senior guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright and freshman center Deandre Ayton combined to shoot 5-5 in those opening minutes, silencing the sold-out crowd out of the gate.
The senior wouldn’t make a shot the rest of the game, but the same could not be said for Ayton- more to come on that.
Arizona continued to dominate ASU early though, and they were doing it by beating the Sun Devils at their own game.
The Wildcats shot 11-15 from the field, and perhaps more surprisingly 5-7 from three-point range to open up a 33-15 lead on the Sun Devils with just over seven minutes to go in the first half. Even senior center Dusan Ristic hit a pair of threes- his first three-point attempts in five games.
ASU looked like it was going to be dragged along for the ride, having shot 7-21 from the field and 0-5 from deep to that point in the contest. The Sun Devils didn’t even tally an assist until about the midpoint of the first half.
“We usually don’t turn (the ball) over like we did today, especially in the first half,” Hurley said. “I believe we had eight (turnovers) at halftime but a lot of those were early in the game and gave them some confidence. But a bunch of different guys had scored for them and got games going early on offense.”
Trailing by 18, the Sun Devils fed off the home-crowd energy and fought back into the game as they’ve done so many times this season.
It started with a 9-0 run, which turned into a 14-2 run and eventually a 23-6 run to close out the half trailing Arizona only 39-38.
“It was amazing that we actually had a shot going into halftime to take the lead after everything that went on early in that game,” Hurley said.
Senior guard Kodi Justice accounted for the 9-0 portion, completing an and-1 layup then nailing back to back threes to cut the deficit to single digits.
Out of the Arizona timeout, ASU allowed its defense to create offense- drawing a pair of charges then getting steals that led to points on the other end.
Freshman Romello White (6 pts, 5 rebs, blk, stl), sophomore Mickey Mitchell (2 pts, 3 rebs, blk) and Justice (2 stl) all played key roles in containing Ristic and Ayton to 8 points each and 6 combined rebounds in the first half, with both committing 3 turnovers as well.
“We battled early,” Justice said. “We went small and they were still big and they were struggling.”
ASU started the second half as hot as it finished the first, going on an 8-0 run to lead 46-39 in the period’s opening minutes. Even as the Wildcats got back in the game, ASU was still playing at a high level.
“We were in attack mode, we were aggressive, we were physical, we were pressuring the ball- I think we turned them over 20 times,” Justice said. “We did all the things in the stat sheet to kind of show that we could win this game.”
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, foul trouble marred the last 15 minutes of action and ultimately defined the game’s outcome.
ASU had five fouls to Arizona’s zero just over five minutes into the half, and had already reached the double bonus just under the nine-minute mark- committing 10 fouls to the Wildcats two.
The main cause was trying to stop Ayton and Ristic down low, something ASU couldn’t keep up for a full 40 minutes. White and Mitchell had each gotten to four fouls while junior big man De’Quon Lake had reached three, despite limited first half action, by the under eight-minute timeout.
Despite the foul issues, the Sun Devils stayed in the game thanks to continued aggressive ball pressure and attacking the hoop on offense. ASU topped the Wildcats in key categories such as points in the paint (40-30), fast break points (18-6) and points off turnovers (20-15).
“If you’d have told me coming in here that Kodi had the game that he had and that we won the paint 40-30 I figured I’d come in here with a big smile on my face,” Hurley said, “but that’s not the case. They murdered us at the free throw line, so that really was the difference.”
To Hurley’s point, Arizona went 21-27 at the charity stripe. ASU shot 7-12. Ayton alone shot better than the Sun Devils at the foul line, going 9-12 en route to a 25-point night, accompanied by 16 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Ristic joined Ayton in the double-double club, finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds himself.
As much as senior guards Tra Holder and Kodi Justice tried to keep ASU in the fight for the waning minutes, junior guard Alonzo Trier (19 pts, team-high 5 ast) put the Sun Devils in checkmate by hitting a three to put the Wildcats up five just over the two-minute mark.
Fittingly, it was Ayton who sealed the deal with a dunk, putting Arizona up seven with under 90 seconds to play.
“We just got to make a few more plays,” Justice said. “Make our free throws, little things like that- winning teams do that, and we have to consistently do it.”
The win was Arizona’s sixth straight against ASU, and 10th in their last 12 meetings.
ASU returns to action next Thursday when it visits Oregon at 9:30 p.m.
