ASU Men’s Basketball: Sun Devils show mettle, Dort comes up clutch to complete 18-point rally

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

Coming off their first loss in 20 non-conference games, the No. 20 Sun Devils (8-1) let a bad second half in last Friday’s defeat carry into the first half of Saturday’s game at the Georgia Bulldogs (5-4).

But ASU flipped the script in the second half, rallying back from a 14-point halftime deficit that was as large as 18 points late in the first to go on to win 76-74. The comeback effort was led by sophomore point guard Remy Martin’s 21 points and three steals and redshirt sophomore (and Suwanee, Georgia native) forward Romello White’s 16 points.

However, it was five-star freshman guard Luguentz Dort who scored the team’s final three points- all in the last minute- to seal the deal despite having his worst shooting night of the season. Dort was the Sun Devils leading scorer entering the day, at 22 Pts/game, but finished with only 12 points on 2-10 shooting from the field. But he made up for the poor performance in the final 20 seconds of action.

Trailing by a point, ASU had the ball coming out of a timeout. After inbounding in the attacking half, the Sun Devils managed to get Dort the ball in an iso situation on the right wing. The freshman drove it to the hoop with authority from the right baseline and scored the layup to put ASU back ahead, 75-74. After a Bulldogs timeout, they attempted an inbound from about half court with 9 seconds to go.

Dort had other ideas, intercepting an ill-advised floater across the width of the court and immediately drawing a desperation foul.

Even though he only made the second free throw, Bulldogs sophomore forward Nicolas Claxton (9 Pts on 2-10 FG’s, 13 Reb, 4 Blk) dribbled up court to the left baseline and forced a contested jumper that only grazed the rim, securing ASU’s fifth victory in six non-conference road games under coach Bobby Hurley.

The exciting finish came after a lopsided first half, in which the Sun Devils consistently struggled to attack the rim against Georgia’s lengthy players. The best stat to illustrate this was Georgia’s seven blocks on the game to ASU’s zero. This forced them to shoot more three’s than desired, as ASU finished the first half 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.

On the other hand, junior Georgia guard Tyree Crump and sophomore forward Rayshaun Hammonds combined for 30 first half points on a collective shooting effort of 8-of-11 from the field, 10-of-11 on free throws and 4-of-7 on threes.

Of course, this didn’t continue into the second half. Sophomore forward Kimani Lawrence (8 Pts, 1 Stl) and senior Zylan Cheatham (10 Pts, 10 Reb) spearheaded a stronger defensive effort that held the duo to only eight second-half points.

The aforementioned efforts of White and Martin led the rally throughout the second half. White, getting the unique opportunity to play an hour’s drive from his hometown, dominated scoring in the paint like he had something to prove. While Martin, outside his “box score” contributions, drew a pair of key offensive foul calls against Georgia that helped kickstart the swing in momentum over the final 10 minutes.

He scored or assisted on six of ASU’s nine points over the final 4 minutes, including hitting the jumper that gave ASU its first lead with 2:50 to go, before Dort took over in those final 20 seconds. The Sun Devils came out with a win in the first game that they trailed at halftime all season, while handing Georgia its first loss after having a halftime lead (previously 5-0 this season).

It will be a quick turnaround for ASU, who travels to Nashville, Tennessee to face Vanderbilt (6-2) Monday night at 5 p.m.