ASU Men’s Basketball: Offense falls flat in 75-47 loss to Arizona

(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)

As has been the case in most of their losses this season, a woeful offensive output left the Arizona State Sun Devils (9-5, 0-1 in Pac-12) with little recourse in a 75-47 loss to the No. 25 Arizona Wildcats (11-3, 1-0 in Pac-12) in Tucson on Saturday.

The Sun Devils finished 3-of-21 from long range (14.3 percent) and only shot 30 percent from the field overall. Junior guard Remy Martin was the only ASU player to make a three, going 3-of-8. He led ASU with 20 points, while no other Sun Devil reached double figures.

Now at 11th in the Pac-12 in three-point percentage, ASU’s struggles in that area are looking less like a cold streak and more of an intrinsic problem. Head coach Bobby Hurley maintains confidence that his team is finding good shots, they just aren’t taking and making them.

“I think we had a fair amount of open looks,” Hurley said. “I thought at times we over-dribbled again, but if we go 3-for-21 from three, this what we are going to be looking at.”

In large part due to the high volume of misses, the Sun Devils only had two assists in the game. Along with four on Dec. 18 vs. St Mary’s, this is the second time this season ASU has had under five team assists, something that did not happen a single time in Hurley’s previous four seasons.

Even the charity stripe proved uncharitable, as the Sun Devils shot 8-for-19 from the foul line on Saturday. With seemingly no good avenues for generating points, ASU’s athleticism and defense had a load too heavy to bear, leading to a rout in favor of Arizona.

Not only were ASU’s perimeter scorers mostly a non-factor, but their strongest interior presence had a rough night as well. Forward Romello White played eight minutes vs. Texas Southern before suffering an ankle injury. He was limited in practice during the week and it wasn’t certain whether he would play.

White ended up logging 24 minutes but scored no points on 0-for-3 shooting with five rebounds.

“Romello battled but he’s physically kind of a shell of what he’s been with what he’s been going through,” Hurley said.

White’s limitations gave the Wildcats a significant advantage, one they exploited throughout the game. Arizona had 50 points in the paint compared to 18 for the Sun Devils. Freshman forward Zeke Nnaji, the Wildcat’s leading scorer, put up 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Facing down an opponent with good size and talent, ASU’s inability to generate offense put them in a deep hole by halftime. Trailing 16-11, the Sun Devils gave up a 20-6 run in the 9:45 before the break. While thy made up a bit of ground in the opening minutes of the second half, one team was in rhythm offensively, and the other was very much not.

“It’s tough to find a lot of positives,” Hurley said. “One positive is that it’s one game and there are 17 more.”

While there are 17 more games ahead, the problems that put the Wildcats far beyond ASU’s reach have been there for more than one game. The Sun Devils have struggled to shoot, and despite the speed and athleticism of their roster, have not been able to make up for it in other areas.

With a road trip to Oregon State on Thursday and Oregon on Saturday, Pac-12 play is in full swing and the Sun Devils can ill afford many more nights like they had in Tucson.