(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
The Arizona State Sun Devils took their fourth conference loss of the season by a score of 76-59 at the hands of an offensively dominant Utah Utes team.
Both teams traded buckets over the first nine minutes of the half. Arizona State’s strong defense was thwarted by its inability to get inside the paint or hit anything from the perimeter for the first three minutes.
“Few things can hurt a team worse than taking bad shots consistently,” head coach Herb Sendek said. “We told the guys at half time, ‘If you’re open and have a good shot take it.’ There were a couple times when we were open and passed up on that shot and took a worse shot later on.”
The teams stayed within a basket of each other for the first five minutes until a Brandon Taylor-jumper sparked an 8-0 Utes run over 1:14 with eight minutes left in the half to make the score 21-12.
Every time the Sun Devils attempted to climb back into it, the Utes would force a turnover or grab an offensive board. The Sun Devils were outrebounded 18-10 in the first half while giving the Utes seven points off six ASU turnovers.
“When you play against a team like Utah you don’t have a lot of room for error,” Sendek said.
Despite a pair of crowd-energizing Kodi Justice and Willie Atwood threes, followed by a Justice-to-Savon Goodman alley-oop with 41 seconds left in the half, the Sun Devils went into the locker room riding a 17-point deficit with a score of 40-23.
The Utes went on a 16-7 run to start the second half, holding the Sun Devils to 10 points within the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Utah steadily extended its lead throughout the entire second half, putting Arizona State in a 65-40 hole with six minutes left to play.
The Sun Devils were unable to get anything of substance going in the second half. The smallest deficit Arizona State faced in the second half was a hefty 14 points.
“I think it was more of us not playing as a collective group tonight,” Savon Goodman said. “Everyone needs to go at the game and get lost in the game.”
Player of the Game: Delon Wright
The senior put up 21 points for his team tonight while dealing out six assists and shooting 100 percent from the charity-stripe on 12 attempts. Wright was the catalyst behind Utah’s 54 percent from the field.
Stat of the Game: One Sun Devil in Double-Figure Scoring
On a team where there is no clear superstar to lead the pack, team production is vital. Tonight, only Gerry Blakes was able to score in double-figures with a measly 10 points.
Biggest Concern: Three-point shooting
The Sun Devils redeemed themselves in the second half, ending the game on 38 percent from behind the arc tonight. However, another lackluster first half of 20 percent effort contributed to the recent trend of poor three-point shooting. The team shot just 17.6 percent from three-point land in its last contest against the Oregon Ducks. In games where the Sun Devils are unable to get inside the paint, such as the first 10 minutes of this contest, they need to exhibit other ways to increase the momentum and get something going for their team.
What’s next?
The Sun Devils will take on the Colorado Buffaloes Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Wells Fargo Arena. The Pac-12 Networks will be broadcasting the game.
You can reach the author via Twitter at KristinaV_18 or by email at kvicario@asu.edu
