(Photo: Paige Cook/WCSN)
After a five game gauntlet facing Top-20 ranked opponent after Top-20 opponent, Arizona State Men’s Basketball hoped to catch its breath and steal a win in Seattle against the unranked Washington Huskies.
However, the Huskies (13-9, 8-4 Pac-12 Conference), who were fresh off of a blowout loss to Stanford, convincingly took care of the Sun Devils (7-15, 3-9 Pac-12) in a wire-to-wire victory 87-64, matching their season-high in points scored.
Washington senior guard Terrell Brown Jr. led all scorers with 19 points, shooting 6-14 from the field, while also adding eight assists and three rebounds.
Brown Jr., who is a Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate averaging 22 points per game, opened up the scoring for both teams, knocking down a pull-up jump-shot 17 seconds into play.
Within the first five minutes of action, the Sun Devils had already found themselves down double-digits after Washington senior guard Jamal Bey knocked down a corner three-pointer in front of the ASU bench to put his Huskies up 17-6.
Washington’s zone defense helped it expand the lead even more, forcing a string of four ASU turnovers within a two minute span, which led to a 12-2 run and put them up 19 points around the eight minute mark of the first half.
However, the Sun Devils were able to go on a 13-1 run in the last 4:30 of the first half, before Washington redshirt junior forward Nate Roberts ended the period with a two-hand slam dunk to put the Huskies up 42-32 going into the intermission.
The second half saw the Sun Devils cut the Huskies’ lead to as few as seven points at the 17:20 mark, which was quickly rescinded by the Huskies, who proceeded to go on a 29-9 run over the course of the following 10 minutes.
The Sun Devils were never able to make another effort to try to get back into the game, and were also held scoreless in the last three minutes of competition.
ASU shot 39.4% (26-66) from the field, making only five of their 22 attempted three-pointers. The Huskies fared much better than ASU, shooting 48.3% from the field (29-60), and 42.9% from downtown (9-21).
ASU’s leading scorer was senior forward Kimani Lawrence, who ended the night with 15 points, shooting 6-10 from the field, six rebounds, three blocks and two assists. Junior forward Jalen Graham also added a total of 14 points on the night along with eight rebounds and three assists.
With their win on Thursday night, the Huskies propelled themselves to fifth place in the Pac-12 standings, while ASU stayed in ninth place.
The Sun Devils will stay in the state of Washington in preparation for their next contest against Washington State (14-8, 7-4) on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. MST.
