ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils lose in Corvalis, remain winless on the road

(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)

 

Oregon State was undefeated at home before this game while Arizona State had yet to win a game away from Wells Fargo Arena. The Beavers also forced the most turnovers per game in the Pac-12, while ASU committed the most turnovers per game in the Pac-12, so on paper, it looked like Oregon State would get this victory, and they did just that knocking off the Sun Devils 55-47.

OSU sophomore guard Malcolm Duvivier scored 15 points along with picking up five rebounds and five assists for the Beavers, and junior forward Eric Jacobsen had 11 points and seven rebounds for ASU.

ASU had their lowest scoring first half of the season in this game only scoring 20 points, trailing the Beavers by nine points. The Sun Devils shot 35 percent from the floor and only 1-for-7 from the three-point line. What really killed ASU in the first half was their turnovers, committing 11 in the first half. OSU also scored 12 second-chance points in the first half off of its eight offensive rebounds. At the end of the game, the Sun Devils had turned the ball over 16 times.

OSU found success in its junior guard Gary Payton II, who had 10 points at halftime. Payton’s on-ball defense also played crucial role in the first half, leading OSU’s 2-3 zone to hold ASU to their worst first half scoring effort of the year. Payton finished with 12 points and five rebounds for the Beavers.

Sophomore forward Savon Goodman, who averaged 15 points over the last four games, was 0-3 from the floor with zero points at the end of the first half. Goodman scored his first bucket 30 seconds into the second half, and finished with only two points.

With 13:25 left in the game, senior guard Bo Barnes cut the Oregon State lead to five with back to back three-pointers from both corners. After Barnes hit the second three-pointer, the Beavers switched from zone to man defense for the first time all game long. A key to cutting Oregon State’s lead was not turning the ball over, which ASU managed to do for the first 10 minutes of the first half.

It turned out to be too little, too late for ASU as OSU drained its free throws down the stretch to extend the lead out of reach for the Sun Devils.

Player of the Game: Eric Jacobsen

Despite a crucial late-game turnover that resulted in Oregon State extending their lead to five points with two minutes left, Jacobsen was the leading scorer with 11 points and had seven rebounds, and in limited the Beavers scoring inside the paint.

Stat of the Game: 19 percent from the three-point line.

Since Gilling and Barnes showed how big of threats they are from three-point land early in the season, they have had a couple rough games from distance. In fact, the whole team has struggled from distance, which carried them through the first few games of the year. As a team, they shot 4-for-21 from three, three of which coming from Barnes and Gilling.

Biggest Disappointment: Zone Offense

The Beavers stayed in a 2-3 zone for the whole first half in which the Devils only scored 20 points. If it wasn’t for Bo Barnes finally making two three-pointers, it would’ve been hard for OSU to come out of that zone at all. For the game, ASU shot 19 percent from the three-point line, and to beat the zone, ASU needed to be better from distance.

What’s Next:

ASU travels to Eugene to take on Oregon on Saturday, January 10.

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