ASU Men’s Basketball: Tra Holder’s flexible gameplay helps the Sun Devils in 74-63 win over the Aztecs

(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)

Coming off of an embarrassing loss to no. 15 Purdue, Arizona State bounced back with a solid 74-63 win on the road over San Diego State.

ASU (6-4) came out to a slow start as it has all season. The Sun Devils were already down 14-4 just five minutes into the game and 32-25 at the half.

The Sun Devils have consistently been a better second half team this season, averaging just 36.8 points in first halves and scoring 45.9 points in second halves. That was exactly how it went for them against the Aztecs.

The Sun Devils scored 49 points in the second half to erase San Diego’s seven-point lead. This scoring surge by ASU was lead by junior guard Tra Holder.

Holder lead the Sun Devils with 17 points and was absolutely relentless all night attacking the rim. Holder earned six free-throw attempts and hit all of them.

All of his cutting moves to the paint helped to spread out the defense and give his teammates good looks from the outside. Holder did a little bit of everything, also leading the team with four assists and pulling down five rebounds.

ASU hit ten 3-pointers during the contest, with junior guard Shannon Evans pouring in four of those total threes. Evans scored 16 points and only missed two of his shots from behind the arc.

Senior forward Obinna Oleka and guard Torian Graham also had nice games, scoring 15 points each. Olekka secured his fifth double-double of the game adding a team-high 12 rebounds.

San Diego State (4-4) could not get much done offensively hitting just 36.8 percent of their shots from the field. Junior guard Trey Kell was the only Aztec with more than 12 points as he scored 20 on seven of 15 shooting.

The Aztecs were also only able to score six threes, which was the key issue responsible for San Diego St giving away their lead in the second half.

Arizona State will try to turn this momentum into a winning streak as they face off against New Mexico State at home on December 17. Tip off for that game is 6 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.