(Photo: Alyssa Buruato/WCSN)
TEMPE – With 15:16 left in the first half in the Arizona State Men’s Basketball (8-1, 2-0 Pac-12) game against Stanford, new ASU head football coach Kenny Dillingham spoke to the Sun Devil faithful. In his speech, Dillingham asked the crowd to be high-energy and support every ASU sport.
In ASU’s 68-64 victory over the Stanford Cardinal (3-6, 0-2 Pac-12) the Sun Devils appeared to channel the energy from Dillingham into another stellar defensive performance that has become the staple of the Sun Devils’ six-game winning streak.
“I don’t have any issues with our defense,” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said. “It’s our bread and butter and we got to play with that type of energy. We knew on film that Stanford had shown that if you could speed them up a little bit and pressure them that they could turn it over and shoot tough shots.”
Energy was the key for the Sun Devils all night. When their energy was high the Sun Devils were locked down on defense, turning that energy into easier buckets on the other side of the floor.
“I feel like it’s a game of runs and they were gonna go on a run regardless,” senior forward Warren Washington said. “We just had to weather the storm and I felt like we did that a little bit later on.”
Early in the first half, following Dillingham’s speech, the Sun Devils captured the momentum. In the first half, the defense held the Cardinal to 25 percent fro the field and 15.4 percent from 3-point range, while also forcing nine turnovers and totaling seven steals. ASU finished the game with 11 steals, forcing 15 turnovers.
Entering Pac-12 play the Sun Devils averaged a low six steals per game. But, in the last two games against Colorado and Stanford, ASU has improved on its thievery notching 14 and 11 steals, respectively. Hurley credits his team’s immense depth, and ability to stay at high energy, for his team’s increase in steals.
“I think we had one guy to play over 30 minutes,” Hurley said. “So you’re getting guys out there that are able to sustain a few minutes of high level and high energy and then you bring someone else in that’s willing to do the same thing then, then you’re going to have a consistent effort.”
With a 32-21 lead at the half, the Sun Devils looked to be in control of the game, riding the defense to a double-digit win. But, Stanford came out hot, opening up the second half with a 13-2 run, putting the Cardinal within two with 14:30 left in the game.
During the run, Stanford took advantage of ASU’s five turnovers, including a stretch where the Sun Devils turned the ball over on four straight possessions, leading to easy points on the other end. The turnovers caused a cycle that forced ASU to play frantically on the defensive end, not letting the defense that performed so well in the first half get set.
“In the second half we weren’t working to get open,” Hurley said “They were stealing it and laying it in. So, we were kind of giving away points from our offense, putting more pressure on us. So our defense was actually a lot better than the numbers even say because the offense, unfortunately, didn’t play well at times.”
So far this year, when the offense has not been able to get going, the Sun Devils have gone to senior guard Desmond Cambridge and his brother, senior guard Devan Cambridge. The sentiment held true on Sunday night, as following the 13-2 run, one of the two Cambridge brothers accounted for eight of the Sun Devils’ next 10 buckets.
On the night as a whole, Desmond led the Sun Devils in scoring with 19 points, adding five rebounds and three assists, and Devan was second to his brother on the scoresheet finishing with 12 points.
Desmond has been a star for the Sun Devils since transferring from Nevada. So far this year, the Nashville native has won the Legends Classic MVP, and on Sunday night, Cambridge had a plus/minus rating of 16, doubling his next closest teammate.
“He’s played a lot of college basketball,” Hurley said about his new guard. “He’s got a lot of confidence. And he’s a guy that we could really trust out there to make big shots and big plays.”
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Desmond said following Sunday night’s win “This is my sixth year in college. So you got to stay poised. You never get too high, never get too low, and we’re just here to win games consistently.”
The Sun Devils have now opened the season 8-1, their best record since 2018-19, and have opened up Pac-12 play 2-0 for the first time in the Bobby Hurley era. And despite being down at one point, Hurley trusted his team’s ability to stay high energy and play great defense.
“I never felt panicked over there,” Hurley said. “I just have a feeling that we have a group that really knows how to win and proven that they can make winning plays. So, even as things were looking dicey at times, I trusted that we would find a way.”
