ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils’ comeback efforts too little too late, fall to USC

(Photo: Josh Orcutt/WCSN)

Bobby Hurley will have to wait two more days to try and compile his first Pac-12 road victory as head coach at Arizona State, as his Sun Devils fell to the USC Trojans 75-65. Sophomore guard Tra Holder had 21 for the Sun Devils, and USC sophomore forward Bennie Boatwright had 14.

The Trojans opened the game making three of their first five shots, both of which were three-pointers. For the Sun Devils they had one bucket in the first four minutes, which was a two-point jumper from junior forward Obinna Oleka, who was making his first start of the season.

No points were scored for the Sun Devils after that until the 12:21 mark when junior guard Andre Spight hit a long two, followed by a jumper from sophomore guard Kodi Justice to make it an eight-point lead for USC with 11:32 remaining in the first half.

The opening ten minutes were not good to the Sun Devils making five of twelve shots and missing all four of their free throw attempts. They found themselves down 22-12 at the eight-minute mark.

After losing his spot in the starting lineup, Spight made an impact off the bench scoring on back-to-back possessions. His turnaround jumper along with a three from Holder, the Sun Devils cut the lead to eight.

USC got its lead back up to 10 at the half, Boatwright led all scorers with ten points while ASU’s leading scorer was Spight with six.

ASU’s shooting struggles continued in the second half making two of their first eight shot attempts and not doing any damage to the USC lead with the score being 43-30 with 14:27 left in the game. Boatwright continued to cause problems for ASU scoring four of the Trojan’s first eight points. Neither ASU’s field goal, three-point, or free throw percentages were above forty percent at this point in the game.

With 8:54 remaining in the game the Trojans held a 13-point lead and ASU had still shown no signs of consistent offense from anyone not named Holder or Spight, who were the only Sun Devils in double-figures at this point. Other than Holder, the ASU starters were a combined 4-23 from the floor.

A couple of threes from Holder as well as junior forward Willie Atwood trimmed the lead down to as little as two, but it wasn’t enough to climb out of the hole that USC dug them into.

Player of the Game: Tra Holder

Holder was the only starter to have a decent game on the offensive end of the floor up until Atwood reached double figures late but by then it was too late. While he is most deserving, it would have been difficult to give this to anyone else.

Biggest Concern: Free Throw Shooting

Out-shooting the Trojans from the line would have been a key to this victory, because USC has the worst free throw percentage in the Pac-12. Instead, ASU had an atrocious night from the line. They made six of their 15 attempts, while USC managed to shoot 66.7 percent from the line.

Unsung Hero: Andre Spight

The junior guard provided a spark off of the bench and was knocking down shots all over the court. Without him, who knows where ASU would have been in this game.

Stat of the Night: Five blocks

For a team that has really only one guy that blocks shots from game to game, that one guy had quite the day. Senior center Eric Jacobsen had four blocks and Atwood had one of his own.

What’s Next?

The Sun Devils take on UCLA on Saturday in Los Angeles.