(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
On a night highlighted by the retiring of Arizona State alumnus and NBA star James Harden’s No. 13 jersey, ASU fought off foul trouble to come away with a 68-66 victory over the UCLA Bruins.
The Sun Devils fought off a strong push from UCLA, who cut ASU’s lead to 67-66 with 7.9 seconds to go, but after ASU freshman point guard Tra Holder went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line, UCLA sophomore guard Isaac Hamilton missed a tough fadeaway three.
It was ASU’s sixth win in Pac-12 play, and a good win at that with the Bruins coming into the game in a tie with Oregon for third place in the conference.
“Guys have gotten better,” ASU head coach Herb Sendek said. “Our team has gotten better.”
After a first half relatively dominated by the Bruins, ASU came out of the intermission to best UCLA in a gritty second half that featured seven lead changes in the first five minutes.
In particular, sophomore forward Savon Goodman stood out in his matchup against UCLA’s lengthy frontcourt. Thriving from the short corner, Goodman went 8-for-8 with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
“I was just telling (ASU’s guards), ‘Don’t hold the ball. Get it up as fast as we can,’” Goodman said.
Goodman also came away with a big offensive board with 4:36 remaining, which eventually led to an absurdly deep three-pointer from senior forward Bo Barnes. He all but sealed the game for ASU when he grabbed another offensive rebound after a missed three from Barnes with just under 20 seconds remaining.
“I didn’t know until the end of the game that I shot perfect from the field,” Goodman said. “It’s unbelieveable. You got to take the good with the bad.”
Barnes, who missed ASU’s contest with Washington due to an ankle injury, was active and stingy on defense. He and fellow senior forward Shaquielle McKissic spent much of the night on UCLA leading scorer, sophomore guard Bryce Alford and held him to just 4-for-14 shooting and 1-for-5 from beyond the arc.
As a team, the Bruins shot 51.9 percent in the first half, but ASU’s defense dug in after the break, and UCLA was held to just 36.7 percent in the final 20 minutes.
“I thought our guys had a number of really big stops and really competed on the defensive end of the floor,” Sendek said.
Coming into the game, the Bruins were atop the Pac-12 in offensive rebounding, but tonight, ASU actually snatched four more offensive boards than UCLA. Considering the fact that the 6-foot-6 Goodman spent some time at center when junior center Eric Jacobsen ran into foul trouble, it only speaks to the effort the Sun Devils showed on the glass.
“Our whole thing was we got to hit them before they hit us,” Goodman said. “We can’t just go to the boards like in previous games and just outjump the ball because they’re going to be right there jumping with us, so we were just trying to make a consistent effort on hitting them before they got to the boards.”
In addition to the back-and-forth game, foul trouble was an issue for both sides. For UCLA, freshman forward Kevon Looney and junior center Tony Parker both fouled out with under five minutes remaining in the game.
This win was big in the grand scheme of ASU’s season, but the way the team won is worth noting as well. With as much as the Sun Devils have relied upon their shooting from distance throughout the season, they went just 5-for-17 from deep. Instead, solid ball movement knifed its way through the Bruin defense as ASU dished out 16 assists on 23 made shots.
“If you’re ultimately going to be a really good team, it’s good to be able to win different ways,” Sendek said. “If the only way you can win is if your team makes 10 threes, you become limited, and so what I like about the evolution of our team is we’re finding ways to get better, but we’re also finding ways other than making a lot of three-point shots to win a game.
“Tonight, the defense and the rebounding were key, but our second half offense was really efficient. We shot over 50 percent, and had a very good ratio of assisted baskets.”
That ball movement was at its most profitable for Goodman, who was the recipient of numerous passes while he sat on the baseline behind UCLA’s frontcourt. He was also on the receiving end of a beautiful Tra Holder alley-oop pass. Goodman curled into the paint and caught the lob, flushing it two-handed while fouled.
Since their 0-4 start to Pac-12 play, the Sun Devils have gone 5-3 with wins over Oregon State, UCLA, and, of course, No. 7 Arizona.
“The Arizona win really turned our season around energy-wise and coming together and being a collective group out there,” Goodman said.
With the Pac-12 Tournament just three weeks away, ASU has shown immense growth in nearly all aspects of the game, and although they still sit toward the bottom half of the conference, the Sun Devils could very well break the .500 mark in conference at the conclusion of the remaining five games on their schedule.
“I’m not making a comment on how far can we go,” Goodman said. “We just taking it one game at a time. We’re looking at every opponent as if it’s an NCAA Tournament game.”
With their Tournament hopes reliant on winning the conference tournament, that mentality only makes sense for the Sun Devils going forward.
You can reach Zac Pacleb on Twitter @ZacPacleb or via email at zacpacleb@gmail.com
