(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
Arizona State faces Oregon after winning three of its last four games and will be looking to split the season series with the Ducks. In their last contest, the Sun Devils blew out the Oregon State Beavers 73-55 after their eight-point loss to the Beavers on January 8. Senior forward Shaquielle McKissic led the Devils with 17 points in the victory.
Oregon, on the other hand, is coming off of a 34-point loss to Arizona, by a score of 90-56. Junior forward Elgin Cook scored 16 points for the Ducks, while all five of Arizona’s starters scored in double figures, led by junior forward Brandon Ashley with 13 points.
After winning six-straight games leading into conference play, the Ducks have lost four of its last seven, and ASU is not the team that it was at the beginning of the Pac-12 season.
Keys to the game
Stop Joseph Young
The senior guard is averaging just under 19 points per game, and if he’s not getting his offense going, there aren’t a lot more scoring options as consistent as Young on Oregon’s roster. There are two other players on the roster averaging more than 10 points per game, but Young is the one that gets this team going and takes over games when necessary.
Aggressiveness on offense, and defense
Oregon ranks in the top-30 in the country in points, rebounds, and assists per game, but while the Ducks have impressive numbers on the offensive end, their struggles on the defensive end catch up with them. While they are top-20 in blocks and rebounds per game, they are allowing 71.3 points per game, which ranks 296th in the nation. ASU has scored at least 70 points in its last four games and to go against a struggling defense is something ASU, like any other team, loves to see.
Tra Holder
There isn’t a specific thing that Holder needs to do in order to win this game, but his whole game needs to be improving for the rest of the year. With junior guard Gerry Blakes playing a lot more off-the-ball as of late and freshman guard Kodi Justice being out for the rest of the season, Holder is going to get a lot more minutes. That being said, Holder is coming off of a 10-point, four-assist performance against Oregon State, and had an eight-point, six-assist game in the loss to Stanford. After a slow start with shared minutes, Holder has stepped into a major role and been much more of a facilitator in the past few games.
Prediction
Despite ASU’s struggles this season, the Sun Devils are still 10-2 at home. Combine their dominant home record with the way the offense has showed up the last four games, and ASU has a good shot at winning its fourth of five games.
