ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils fall in 80-79 nail-biter to Oregon State

(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)

Arizona State Men’s Basketball dropped to 4-6 (1-3 in conference) on the season after a gut-wrenching loss to Oregon State on Saturday night. After edging past the Beavers in Tempe last season, Oregon State gave the Sun Devils a taste of their own medicine, scraping together an 80-79 victory in Corvallis. It’s the third straight Pac-12 loss for an ASU team that was anticipated to be a contender in the Conference of Champions.

“It came down to a lot of little things late,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “There are a bunch of other reasons we didn’t get the win. I think the rebounding component bothered us in patches – we got to keep working on that and addressing it. Hopefully we can get [sophomore forward] Jalen Graham back next week to get more of a presence inside.”

ASU has now lost the battle on the boards in nine of its first 10 games. The front-court has been anything but stable with Graham, junior forward Taeshon Cherry and freshman forward Marcus Bagley all missing significant time. Junior forward Chris Osten made the start at center in Corvallis and poured in 12 points on 6-7 shooting while snagging a team-high seven rebounds.

The Sun Devils were also desperately searching for their shooting stroke on Saturday night. Outside of Bagley, the Sun Devils shot a combined 1-12 from deep despite ASU having an assist to turnover ratio of 22:4. The execution in the half-court was flawless. Shots from deep just refused to fall.

“We need to do that [three-point shooting] a little better,” Hurley said. “Not necessarily that that cost us the game but just overall. If you look at our last three games our opponent has made about three or four more threes than we have. Our numbers, I don’t think, are reflective on our ability to shoot it, so we got to do a better job of connecting from deep.”

All eyes were on senior guard Remy Martin, who made his return to the lineup after the death of his grandfather. Martin showed his patented aggression when running the offense but it was clear that the Sun Devils’ shooting woes were contagious, as he connected on zero of his eight three-point attempts. Martin combated those struggles by repeatedly penetrating the paint and dishing to open teammates for easy looks, which generated a career-high eight assists.

“I don’t expect Remy to go 0-8 from three too often, that’s not what he’s been over his whole career,” Hurley said. “But he did some really good things down the stretch, clutch free throws, I think he had eight assists and no turnovers. So it’s hard to really knock his performance.”

Senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. was also in a sharing mood, as he also attained a career-high eight assists.

“I just knew the defense was gonna focus on me and keep their eyes on me and Remy,” Verge said. “I saw that the defense was pretty high up and I saw that the backline was pretty open, so I just communicated to those guys to back door [cut] and I’m gonna hit you and it was pretty much open.”

ASU was up 76-75 with 29 seconds remaining when Verge fouled out on an OSU possession. The senior fought through a questionable screen and fouled Beavers sophomore guard Jarod Lucas on a three-point attempt from the top of the key. Lucas missed the jumper but then proceeded to sink all three free-throws, putting the Beavers up 78-76.

ASU would then have to turn to its freshman tandem for a clutch bucket. Freshman guard Josh Christopher, who was in his own foul fracas, handled the ball with time dwindling down. Christopher penetrated and kicked out to Bagley on the left wing, where Bagley’s three-point attempt was good, giving the Sun Devils the 79-78 lead with 11 seconds remaining.

“Late in the game shows you what we have been saying about Marcus Bagley,” Hurley said “Just [shows] how special he is to make those three big threes. Especially the last one was a tough one, he had a hand in his face and it was a heck of a shot.”

Bagley was an anomaly in an ASU crowd that could not buy a three-pointer on Saturday. The former five-star forward shot 4-6 from three and scored a game high 19 points.

Bagley’s bucket was short lived as Hurley opted not to take a timeout, though. The Beavers then inbounded the ball, quickly rushed down the court and scored with the ease of a police escort. Oregon State senior guard Ethan Thompson was doubled by ASU, but quickly passed inside to junior forward Warith Alatishe for an easy game-winner. Oregon State came out on top despite the game’s 20 lead changes and 17 ties.

“Thompson made a great pass, made a great play,” Hurley said. “If there was something I wish I could have done a little bit differently, maybe get a timeout after we did hit that three, just to set our defense and make sure we’re matched up properly for that last possession. Outside of that I can’t be disappointed with our team. Did some nice things out there tonight, our assist to turnover ratio was maybe the best we’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Even after their fourth straight loss, the Sun Devils are keeping their heads high.

“I loved our locker room,” Hurley said. “First thing I did when I walked in after [the game] was just look around. I saw how disappointed they were and that’s an indicator of how much they are investing and how much they want to win. I can’t say I saw that after Villinova, and early in the season. Definitely on to something in terms of stepping up trying to win these things. I’m pleased we made some strides here in this game with our offense. It’s very frustrating though when you are 1-3 in the conference and you’ve lost three games that you are certainly right there and have a chance to win in the last three minutes. We got to figure out a way to close these games out.”