(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
The Arizona State Sun Devils got off to a hot start and never looked back as they took down the no. 18 Texas A&M Aggies 67-54.
Senior forward Willie Atwood scored a season-high 15 points and junior forward Savon Goodman recorded his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds. They led the way as the Sun Devils dominated one of the better teams in the country this year.
ASU took the lead with 16 minutes left in the first half and led the entire way from there. After a stellar first 20 minutes, ASU took a 33-19 lead into the half. The Aggies never got within eight points the rest of the game.
ASU built their early lead mainly due to their defensive effort, holding Texas A&M to just 19 points on 6-27 shooting in the first half. The Aggies’ 19 points was their lowest-scoring half of the season.
“(ASU head coach Bobby Hurley) put defense in us a lot in practice,” senior forward Willie Atwood said. “We pressure each other, go after each other, foul each other hard in practice so in the game, we try not to foul of course, but we more try to be aggressive and get turnovers.”
The Sun Devils focused on keeping the ball around the perimeter with their man defense, swarming to whomever had the ball and refusing to allow the ball to be dished into the paint. In the relatively few times the ball did reach the paint, ASU either forced a steal or a contested look.
Turnovers turned out to be a huge difference-maker for the Sun Devils, who forced 14 of them. The offense took advantage and garnered 22 points off of those turnovers.
On the offensive side of the ball, ASU maintained a balance attack as five different Sun Devils scored in double figures. This was the first game of the season that as many as five different players reach double digits in scoring.
“We talked about the balance on offense,” Hurley said. “It’s exciting to see who ‘the guy’ could be and to have five guys scoring double figures.”
Sophomore guard Kodi Justice had his best game of the season by far, dominating the game from behind the arc. Justice went 3-for-7 from three-point range and provided a huge lift off the bench. With Texas A&M playing a 2-3 zone for parts of the game, Justice was the most active Sun Devil at getting into the paint and creating open looks for other players. He finished with a season-high 10 points.
“If I can get the crowd going with the little things I’m doing here and there, that’s all I’m trying to do,” Justice said.
Foul trouble did become an issue for ASU late in the game. Two of the team’s three big men, Goodman and Jacobsen, picked up their fourth fouls with more than eight minutes remaining in the game.
The ASU small-ball lineup with 6’7” junior forward Obinna Oleka pushed the envelope and did not bend as the game tightened up single digits with 2:42 remaining. The Sun Devils kept shooting despite the game being close and did not pack it in when it got close.
“If anything, there were a couple of times when I encouraged guys to want to shoot the ball in the second half because when you have that big lead, sometimes you want to protect it,” Hurley said.
The Sun Devils’ next opponent is arguably their toughest. ASU heads to Lexington, Kentucky to take on the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats in Rupp Arena on December 12th.
“Going into Kentucky, they’ve got a lot of size,” sophomore guard Tra Holder said. “We’ve got to battle down there and hopefully come out with the win. Still, you’ve got to take it one game at a time. Our goal was to beat Texas A&M today and that’s what we did.”
