(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)
For the entire 2021-22 season, Arizona State Men’s Basketball has continuously faced the challenge of not being able to consistently put points on the board.
From only scoring 29 points in a game earlier this season against Washington State, to a 50-point outing against California, the 319th-ranked scoring Division 1 team in the country (63.9 points per game) is no stranger to struggles on that side of the ball.
However, during Thursday night’s 24-point victory over Oregon, ASU was able to drill the Ducks with 81 points – a night in which the Sun Devils statistically had their best shooting performance in over three years.
Thursday night saw ASU shoot a staggering 57.4% (31-54) from the field, a Sun Devil-best since Feb. 9, 2019, when they logged a 61.7% shooting performance against Washington. They also knocked down nine of their 20 attempted three-pointers on Thursday, shooting 45%, which was ASU’s second-best performance from beyond-the-arc this season.
“I thought it was a breakout offensive performance for the guys,” ASU Head Coach Bobby Hurley said. “It just was fun to watch.”
A catalyst for ASU’s offensive outburst was senior guard Marreon Jackson. Jackson came off of the bench early in the first half, and quickly laid out a barrage of jumpers to give the Sun Devils early momentum.
“Marreon came in right away [and performed],” Hurley said. “We wanted to get him in the game early for matchup reasons, and he was a big part of it offensively with his three’s when we were stuck on nine [points].
“He really got us going.”
Jackson finished the first half with 16 points, shooting 6-7 from the field, and 4-5 from downtown. He didn’t record any second half points, but an ensemble of Sun Devils came up big in the second frame to make up for it.
Junior forward Jalen Graham finished the game with 18 points – 14 of those coming in the second half – while senior forward Kimani Lawrence and senior guard DJ Horne both added 12 points in the half.
A big reason why the Sun Devils were able to see success in the second half can be credited to their shot selection. They were often able to get wide-open shots, due to the way that they shared the ball. ASU recorded 13 assists on 17 second-half field goals.
This was a drastic difference from earlier this season, when the Sun Devils would oftentimes dribble out the clock and be forced to throw up bad, low-percentage shots.
“Our shot selection was definitely way better than it’s been in recent games, and we knocked them down today which made it that much (better),” Jackson said. “I feel like we were just very efficient from the field in general, and that’s going to help us win a lot of games.”
Horne believes that the Sun Devils fared so well against the Ducks on the offensive side of the ball due to the now-familiar experience of playing with each other, and knowing where each other likes the ball.
“I feel like we’re definitely building that chemistry even more now and it’s definitely showing on the court,” Horne said. “Shot selection is coming about a lot easier, [and] taking better shots. It’s not so much iso, iso and just jack up a three. We’re starting to utilize the paint a lot more. Post guys [are] producing in there.”
Overall, Hurley was impressed with his teams’ selection of shots on Thursday night, and ultimately happy that his team came out on top against Oregon for the second time this year.
“How clean we were playing offense, and the shots we were getting, the shots we were converting,” Hurley rambled of the performance. “Really the only thing we didn’t do was make some free throws in the first half, otherwise it was as good of a performance we’ve had all year.”
