(Photo: Travis David V Whittaker/WCSN)
Much like the rest of his Sun Devil teammates, junior forward Kimani Lawrence had been struggling all season from 3-point range. Entering Thursday night’s contest with the Bruins, Lawrence was shooting 6-for-38 from behind the arc on a team that was shooting 30.5 percent on 3-pointers as a team.
Yet Lawrence’s 15.7 percent shooting clip from deep – and an 0-for-2 performance at Washington on Saturday – didn’t deter him from taking and making his first two 3-point shots of the night in an 84-66 victory over UCLA. Lawrence’s opening shots set the tone for Arizona State, as the Sun Devils shot 80 percent from distance in the first half.
“We talked after [the Washington] game and I just said ‘you’re way too good of a shooter to shoot and miss that way,’” Hurley said. “I still believe that he can make shots and it’s just a small slice of what he’s going to do for us, but if he’s open, I have confidence with him.”
Khalid Thomas made each of his three attempted 3-pointers. Rob Edwards went 3-for-7 including a pull-up 3-pointer in transition which gave ASU a double-dight lead they wouldn’t relinquish for the remainder of the night. And Alonzo Verge didn’t miss on any of his three attempts in a second half during which he scored 24 of his game-high 26 points.
“Me making my shots is something that people haven’t really seen this year,” said Verge, who was an efficient 10-of-16 shooting. “I was just consistent with it today and it was just falling so me making my shots opened up me attacking the basket and opened up my whole game.”
While Arizona State’s assist percentage on made field goals for the season prior to Thursday night was 41.8 percent, the Sun Devil ball movement was evident throughout the night as Arizona State assisted on 16 of its 29 made field goals.
Even when the Bruins played good defense, the Sun Devils still saw good results. With 9:34 left in the first half, Verge drove baseline and was cut off by UCLA’s Jake Kyman. Verge left the floor to pass, hitting senior forward Mickey Mitchell, who swung the ball to Thomas the top of the arc for his third 3-pointer of the night to give ASU a 26-17 lead.
“It was a matter of time,” Verge said. “Everybody just bought in to what everybody wanted to do, so we were just moving the ball.”
Late in the second half, junior guard Remy Martin pulled up and made a 3-pointer from just inside the Desert Financial Arena logo. Martin’s second 3-point make of the night moved him past Fat Lever on the all-time Arizona State scoring list.
The Sun Devils offensive showing was matched by their defensive efforts, which held UCLA to 37.9 percent shooting from the field. Romello White came up two points shy of another double-double and two rebounds shy of his career high on the glass, finishing with eight points and 15 rebounds.
Following Saturday’s road win over Washington, Hurley said he was happy to see another solid performance against a UCLA team that had won four of its last five Pac-12 contests.
“I look back on the Georgia game and then us not stepping up in the Saint Mary’s game. And I’ll look at the Arizona game and us not doing it at Washington State,” Hurley said. “And now we played a really good game on Saturday on the road and won against a very talented team and came back and had to beat another team that’s probably playing as good as anyone in the conference.
During Hurley’s time in Tempe, the Sun Devils have failed to sweep any road trips in Pac-12 play. To this point in the 2019-20 season, they’ve also failed to sweep any weekend slate of games, something they’ll have another chance at on Saturday night against USC (17-6, 6-4 Pac-12).
“It was nice to see us string together a couple of games,” Hurley said, “and we have another opportunity on Saturday night.”
