ASU Men’s Basketball: Pac-12 title hopes erased by Oregon in 2019 tournament’s most thrilling game yet

(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)

LAS VEGAS- In the first game of the 2019 Pac-12 tournament to go to overtime, the Oregon Ducks (22-12) came out victorious 79-75 over the Arizona State Sun Devils (22-10), ending ASU’s run at the program’s first-ever Pac-12 tournament title in the semifinals.

“I thought it was an outstanding college basketball game,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. “We don’t have anything to be ashamed of, the way the guys competed and fought.”

The Sun Devils had the chance to close out the game in regulation, the score tied 67-67, but guards Remy Martin and then Rob Edwards missed contested jumpers- Edwards’ a three- in the final 10 seconds to send the game to overtime.

ASU managed to grab the offensive rebound off of Martin’s initial miss, and the Sun Devils had a few seconds left and a timeout. But it wasn’t granted to ASU, leaving Edwards to shoot the contested three.

“There was a bit of a scramble, I know that (senior forward) Zylan (Cheatham) attempted to call a timeout,” Hurley said. “The coaches can’t call a timeout in that situation. You know, apparently the ref did not see him call the timeout, and at that point, the clock was winding down and Rob just tried to make the best of what he could do with it.”

Oregon turned those missed shots into momentum, starting the extra session on a 9-1 scoring run which was facilitated by the Ducks press defense. They forced ASU turnovers on consecutive possessions, which they turned into two points on both occasions.

“The aggressiveness really did help us,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said.

With Oregon leading 76-68, Martin willed ASU back in the game with buckets on consecutive possessions, cutting the deficit to four with two minutes left.

Although a driving layup by Ducks guard Payton Pritchard seemed to put the game out of reach with a minute left- Oregon leading 78-72 at that point- three made free throws from Edwards kept the game in striking distance.

ASU managed to get a stop, and freshman guard Luguentz Dort got an open three-pointer at the top of the key that bounced off the back iron with 12 seconds left, ultimately the last straw for the Sun Devils in arguably their hardest-fought loss this season.

“I think the main thing that went wrong in overtime was losing (Cheatham), him getting his fifth foul with four minutes to go, he’s such a big part of us winning games, and it’s hard to overcome that- his defense and everything he does to help us win,” Hurley said.

“We were a little bit careless with the ball in overtime and that’s kind of what we were doing early in the game as well, so we were reverting back to that when we didn’t need to turn it over.”

Hurley’s bunch started the game ice cold, as a Cheatham bucket 4:22 into the game was ASU’s first points.

The Ducks started the game on a 7-0 run, and led by as much as 17-5 in the early going due to ASU struggling to find good shots or penetrate the paint against Oregon’s length.

The Sun Devils fought back to make it a game, starting with back-to-back threes by Dort to cut that deficit to six, but still trailed 35-28 at the half.

This was mainly due to Oregon outscoring ASU 15-2 on points off turnovers, as the Devils turned the ball over seven times and had seven shots blocked, while Oregon only had three for each.

A key factor in this was Martin pulling his groin only minutes into the game, which limited him to 12 minutes in the first half and saw him coming in and out of the locker room throughout the night.

“He gutted it out because he’s a warrior,” Hurley said. “He was probably 60-75 percent of what Remy Martin would normally be, but he was moving fairly well at times out there and we’re going to have six or seven days to get him healthy. We already spoke and he doesn’t think it’s going to be an issue next week when we’re playing.”

There were times during tonight’s game where Martin didn’t play like he was injured, such as the opening minutes of the second when a Martin three sparked an 8-2 run out of the gate, and his next triple gave the Sun Devils their first lead, 39-38, at the 16:04 mark.

In fact, ASU’s performance in the first 10 minutes of the second was a complete 180 from how it started in the first. Oregon went from 19:15-12:44 without making a field goal, part of an 18-3 ASU run in the first seven minutes of the half.

“Basketball’s a game of runs,” Cheatham said. “We just tried to stay with it, we just tried to keep making plays, not get down on ourselves because it’s a 40-minute game, and I think we did that.”

Things seemed to only be getting better for ASU, as its nine-point lead at 12:22 was its biggest of the night.

But freshman forward Louis King helped will the Ducks back into the game, scoring 10 consecutive points for them in a run that brought it back to a one-possession game.

“At about the 12-minute mark we were dragging a little bit,” Altman said. “I thought (King) hitting those buckets kept our heads up, and then we got a couple turnovers and that kind of reenergized us.”

Although ASU kept its turnovers down in comparison to the first half, Oregon’s full-court press caused more when the Ducks went to it at key points in the game.

However, the game turned into a foul duel for the middle chunk of the second. This didn’t faze the Sun Devils though, as Cheatham (6-for-8), Martin (4-for-5) and Dort (4-for-6) all made key free throws to maintain a lead for ASU.

“It was a physical game,” Altman said. “They’re a physical, athletic team. You got to get in an athletic position, bend your knees and play the same way.”

The Sun Devils led by as much as 64-57 with four minutes to go, but Pritchard hit consecutive driving layups to chip away at that deficit.

Still, ASU was clinging on to a three-point lead when senior Oregon guard Ehab Amin hit a corner three to tie the game 67-67 with 1:32 to go, a shot coach Hurley cited as the turning point.

Sophomore forward Romello White had a shot blocked, then Pritchard missed a driving layup with 37 seconds to play which set up that last possession in which ASU failed to close the game out in regulation.

The Ducks carried the momentum of the 10-3 run that brought them to OT in outscoring the Sun Devils 12-8 in the extra session, earning the right to play Washington on Saturday night for the Pac-12 tournament championship.

“I think this shows that people across the United States that watched the Pac-12 tournament might’ve seen two high-level teams playing,” Hurley said, “so (the conference) may not be as bad as everyone thinks.”

ASU now awaits its NCAA tournament fate, which will be revealed Sunday when the tournament field is announced. If the Sun Devils get in as expected, it will be the program’s first consecutive appearances in ‘March madness’ since 1980-81.