ASU Men’s Basketball: Second half dooms Sun Devils in loss to SDSU

The No. 23 ranked Arizona State Men’s Basketball team was dismantled by No. 24 San Diego State on Thursday night, losing 80-68. The Sun Devils dropped to 3-2 and were once again out-matched when facing up against one of the better programs in the country. For a squad that is hopeful to make a monumental run come March, Thursday’s game along with the contest against Villanova earlier in the season serve as gauges for how the Sun Devils would perform against opponents of higher quality. Both of those games not only resulted in a loss for ASU, but they also exposed an apparent weakness in the Sun Devils’ roster.

“If we can’t find another gear and play harder then we’re not going to have success versus teams like San Diego State or Villanova,” head coach Bobby Hurley said.

The perimeter and finesse game has been on full display for the Sun Devils this season. Tenacity and hustle, however, has been shaky. ASU was out-rebounded in three out of their last four games going into Thursday night’s match-up with the Aztecs. Against San Diego State, a similar tale was told. ASU was out-rebounded once more 44-37. The Aztecs took full advantage of those looks, scoring 17 second-chance buckets to the Sun Devils’ seven.

With the departure of Romello White, the Sun Devils are still searching for their defensive anchor and rebounder early in the season. With the absence of freshman forward Marcus Bagley Thursday, ASU was desperate for a presence down-low against a stifling San Diego State squad.

“We have to get rebounds, I felt like today not everyone wanted to crash,” sophomore forward Jalen Graham said. “We are a smaller team but we’re faster and we are quicker to balls and that’s how we have to play. When we don’t do that we get into a lot of trouble.”

Trouble in Tempe was indeed brewing, as the Aztecs opted to deploy a 2-3 zone for much of the contest. San Diego State harassed ASU with its length and experience on both ends. The Aztecs’ physicality translated to the box score, as they outscored the Sun Devils 36-8 in the paint.

“Everything that they did was strong and together,” Graham said. “Sometimes I feel like we lack that and once we get that and connect like that it’s going to be crazy. We just have to take away how they talked and communicated because we have all of the pieces. We just lack communication at times.”

Senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. made his return to the ASU line-up after missing two games due to COVID-19 contact tracing. The potent scorer heated up in the second half after shooting 2-8 in the first. He went on to score 19 in the second half thanks to five threes. Verge Jr. finished with 25 points on 7-14 shooting from behind the arc.

ASU’s other go-to bucket getters were nowhere to be found after halftime. Senior guard Remy Martin and freshman guard Josh Christopher combined for 6 points on 0-7 shooting in the second half.

For Christopher, foul trouble hurt. The star freshman picked up four personal fouls in the second half, and his night was over at the 8:24 mark.

Meanwhile, Martin played like a shell of his usual self.

“He kind of had a blank look on him and wasn’t really having that fire or energy that I’m used to seeing from Remy,” Hurley said. “He has got to play better in these games.”

San Diego State’s game plan was eerily similar to the one Villanova head coach Jay Wright orchestrated against the Sun Devils early this year: limit transition opportunities, play with pace and stay disciplined in the 2-3 zone.

“They were switching their five on our guards and we couldn’t really go by them,” Hurley said. “Our forwards didn’t make them pay under the basket for switching. So we are going to have to work on that. I would imagine Villanova did a similar thing and other teams might see that and say. ‘Hey, this is working pretty well.’ We will be getting to the practice floor and seeing adjustments we can make on offense to do better in those situations.”

It could be back to the drawing board for Hurley after a game where nothing seemed to go right for the Sun Devils. The adjustments will have to be made quickly as ASU plays again Sunday at Grand Canyon at 2 p.m. MT.