(Photo: Brady Klain/WCSN)
Remy Martin’s teammates had to call him out. Through the first 13 minutes of Arizona State’s 66-65 victory over No. 22 Arizona, the junior point guard was being outplayed in his own building by a freshman, albeit a talented one, in UArizona’s Nico Mannion.
Mannion could not miss early on Saturday night. The former ESPN Top 10 recruit opened up by making his first four shots from behind the arc. When Mannion hit his fourth three-pointer using a screen to go left into a pull-up jumper, the Wildcats opened a 34-13 lead.
“These guys got on me,” said Martin of his teammates’ reaction to Mannion’s opening 12 points. “They were like ‘man, you’ve gotta do better on him.’”
From the 6:51 mark of the first half on, Martin’s determination provided a different spark for an Arizona State squad that was looking for its first win over a ranked opponent this season. After trailing by as much as 22, the Sun Devils closed the first half on a 6-0 run, cutting the deficit to a manageable 13 at the break.
“It was a manageable margin at that point,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “We had some momentum going into the locker room.”
Martin opened the second half in a burst that would most aptly be compared to the jamming of the speed burst button in NBA 2K, as the junior guard opened the half on a personal 7-0 run. Martin’s mid-range jumper off the glass, layup in transition, and fadeaway 3-pointer trimmed the 13-point halftime deficit to just six points in two and a half minutes.
By the time freshman forward Jalen Graham made a free throw with 11:37 to play, the Sun Devils had tied the game at 49 apiece. A back-and-forth ten minutes of action set up a final minute in which the Sun Devils needed a go-ahead score with 33 seconds to play.
When a ball-screen action for Rob Edwards was denied, the Sun Devil senior guard reset the offense with a pass to Alonzo Verge.
“He didn’t force anything,” Martin said. “He kicked it to [Verge] and the thing about this Guard U Arizona State is that everybody can make plays. And when the play wasn’t there, Rob decided to throw it to Zo and Zo made the big-time play.”
Verge denied a ball-screen from Graham, split the defenders and laid the ball up for a go-ahead score. With no timeouts, Arizona freshman guard Josh Green capped an 0-for-8 night from the field with a missed shot – a contest by Edwards and sophomore forward Taeshon Cherry, closing out Arizona State’s victory.
“That’s a complete team. That’s a team where one guy doesn’t have a play and another one steps up and makes a big shot,” said Martin, whose 24 points and four assists led all Sun Devils in the win.
“Rob could’ve forced up a shot, but he gave it to me,” said Verge, who finished with 13 points. “He trusted me that I was going to make the right play.”
In his first three years in Tempe, Martin has already displayed an ability to elevate his game against the Wildcats. In six contests against Arizona, Martin is averaging 20.5 points per game, 3.8 rebounds per game and 3.3 assists per game.
Last year in Tempe, Martin’s 31 points fueled an overtime win against the Wildcats. This time around, his 24-point performance was a game-high mark in the Sun Devils largest comeback win ever, surpassing a 21-point comeback against Stanford in 1993.
“He’s a heck of a player,” Hurley said of his junior point guard. “He’s one of the best players in the conference. He’s one of the best players in the country for me. He didn’t have a great shooting half – missed a couple free throws in the first half, but you count on that guy in the second half to make big plays and help you win games.”
The Sun Devils win over Arizona moves them to .500 in Pac-12 play, as they prepare for a trip to Washington to take on the Cougars and Huskies this week. For Arizona State (12-7, 3-3 Pac-12), Hurley said the Sun Devils must use it as a springboard rather than treating it like a peak.
“To see our guys deliver like that, it was special,” Hurley said. “This can’t be the top of the mountain for us this year. We have to now try and make a surge off of this.”
“Our expectations are so high,” Martin said. “We’re not satisfied. In my mind, we’re supposed to win. So at the end of the day, we’re happy, but we’ve still got tons of games left, tons of season left, but this is what we’re supposed to do. This is Arizona State now.”
