(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
From start to finish, the atmosphere at Desert Financial Arena was electric.
It wasn’t a traditional rivalry, but it might as well have been. Amped by 11,391 fans, the decibel levels Thursday night reached unfamiliar heights, even for senior forward Kimani Lawrence who has competed for nearly half a decade in Tempe.
“That was like our biggest crowd, my biggest crowd I’ve been a part of in like two years,” Lawrence said.
Amidst the hype stirred up heading into the game and the inflammatory “we can’t hear you” chants traded between both fan bases Thursday night, Lawrence and his teammates rose to the occasion, especially down the stretch.
With just under one minute to go in the final frame, Lawrence navigated from the left short-corner to the center of the key, showed a ball fake with his back to the basket, and elevated above his defender to convert a hook shot over his left shoulder.
Up 59-52, Arizona State (4-6) drained eight straight free throws to seal their second straight victory and hand Grand Canyon (8-2) their second loss by a final score of 67-62.
“I thought it was a gutsy win. I thought we got out of the gate well, which was nice to see, and having a nine-point lead was a different place for us,” head coach Bobby Hurley said of his team postgame. “Overall, I just think the blocks were significant, just our length around the basket and our ability to alter and block those shots, 13 of them. And then the free throws, we were able to shoot those percentages. You know, that was really the difference in the game for us tonight.”
As Hurley’s comments confirm, the Sun Devils’ path to success was no mystery. Of their 13 total blocks, seven of them were recorded in the opening period alongside six steals and a monumental 14 points at the foul line on a 93.3 percent clip.
These numbers are evidence of the immense energy ASU’s home crowd funneled down to their team’s play on both ends of the floor through the first half.
On the defensive end, Hurley’s crew was consistently excellent at all levels. Of Arizona State’s true rim protectors, each one of them chipped into their team’s evening-long block party. The 13 blocks in a game for ASU is a program record.
Recording the teams’ seventh and final rejection of the half was 6-foot-10 freshman center Enoch Boakye, relying on the length and athletic ability well documented by NBA scouts to turn away a GCU layup attempt in resounding fashion.
Alongside Boakye, junior forwards Alonzo Gaffney and Jalen Graham denied one shot apiece. And even the 6-foot-6 Lawrence got in on the action.
Rather unusual, however, were such contributions Hurley got from a handful of his guards.
A steal from former Sun Devil guard Holland Woods II set off a transition opportunity for GCU. Senior guard Marreon Jackson was the only man left in the backcourt to derail Woods II’s fast break chance. The custom for many guards may have been to manage a quick swipe through, if that. Instead, Jackson held his ground and met Woods II at the rim in walling up his take and erasing high-percentage points for the Lopes.
It was this gritty challenge that embodied the aggressive, take-no-prisoners approach ASU competed with from the opening tip.
In the backcourt blocks department, next to Jackson was junior guard Luther Muhammad and freshman guard Jamiya Neal, each rejecting one shot apiece.
Additionally, these guards’ defensive achievements simultaneously took on a more traditional tone, accounting for six of their team’s seven steals in the period.
“Getting stops and our transition (offense) in the first half especially, I think we had 14 points off turnovers. That was nice that our defense could help take some pressure off our (half-court) offense,” Hurley told reporters postgame.
When you consider the success Hurley’s Sun Devils created off of steals and stops in coalition with their 14-15 mark from the free-throw line, it helps make sense of the nine-point lead they held at the break while shooting just 30 percent from the field and 8 percent beyond the arc.
An individual performance that best sums up ASU’s half-court offense in the opening frame was that of sophomore guard Jay Heath. Standing just 6-foot-3, Heath fearlessly attacked the cup time and time again. With no field goals, Heath was still the team’s leading scorer at halftime, scoring all seven of his points at the stripe.
“I liked Jay (Heath) getting to the foul line. You know, he really has the ability to do that,” Hurley pointed out when highlighting his team’s offensive bright spots in Thursday night’s contest.
But for all that could be said about how ASU overcame their struggles from the field, they still only had 33 points in 20 minutes. In rather simplistic terms, it was due to GCU’s mere 24 first-half points that allowed for the Sun Devils’ nine-point cushion after the competition’s first 20 minutes.
At the hands of their opponent’s aforementioned defensive intensity, head coach Bryce Drew could only muster notable production from his points-per-game leaders.
Woods II and junior guard Jovan Blacksher Jr. turned in ten and six points, but the Lopes could manage just eight more points from other players.
And even with Woods II’s game-high mark by the break, such was achieved on inefficient shooting, as he made just three of his nine field goal attempts on 1-5 shooting from downtown.
Therefore, as a team, Grand Canyon shot a poor 25 percent overall, hitting just two threes at a 16.7 percent clip.
Arizona State’s games are often a tale of two halves; they haven’t been prone to putting forth a consistent brand of basketball for 40 minutes on a night-to-night basis. But this one against GCU was different.
In the second half of action, ASU came out and mirrored their first-half efforts with equally effective performances on the defensive end and at the free-throw stripe.
Gaffney, Graham and Lawrence took full responsibility for the team’s rim protection, dialing up two more blocks each.
And despite the continuation of their struggles with shooting the ball, they again missed just one free throw on thirteen attempts by the game’s final buzzer. The Sun Devils finished with a remarkable 92.9 percent free-throw percentage, despite entering the contest with an average rate floating around the mid-60s.
On Grand Canyon’s side, offense continued to run through Woods II and Blacksher Jr. with little to no changes to their offensive flow in the final 20 minutes.
The only significant differences could be seen in their effectiveness. Combining for 22 of GCU’s 38 points in the period, they each did so with improved marks from the field; Woods II shot 4-9 while Blacksher Jr. stood similar at 5-12.
Considering Woods II’s improved percentages in the second, his game-high 20 points and his history with Hurley, the Sun Devils’ head coach communicated great love and respect for his former player after the win.
“Holland (Woods II) and I got a chance to talk before briefly. And man, he’s a warrior. You know, he did everything he could to try and win the basketball game for his team. And I’m not surprised,” Hurley said. “That kid’s got a lot of guts and he fought side-by-side with me last year through one of the toughest years in the history of sports, especially if you’re not doing well and you’re going through COVID. That kid just showed up everyday and fought, so I hope he has just all the success that he could have this year.”
Having now notched two consecutive hard-fought victories, Hurley and Arizona State have three more opportunities on their non-conference schedule. Next, they’ll travel to Omaha to take on Creighton Tuesday night.
