(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Arizona State Men’s Basketball was embarrassed at home in Tempe in its first Pac-12 Conference game as it fell to Washington State 51-29 on Wednesday night at Desert Financial Arena.
Blame could be placed on the long flight home from the Bahamas and a late arrival Saturday night, but ASU fifth-year guard Marreon Jackson dismissed those claims.
“That’s no excuse,” Jackson said. “We were prepared but we didn’t play well at all.”
ASU head coach Bobby Hurley added: “It was disappointing for us on offense. I’ve had a lot of teams here that can put some points on the board and tonight was as ineffective of an offensive performance as I’ve ever been a part of. “This was especially bad. [I’m] just stunned.”
Both teams struggled to score, as just 22 points combined were on the scoreboard 15 minutes into the game. Washington State woke up and steamrolled the rest of the contest, ending on a 39-16 run.
“That’s just not usual for us and that’s why Hurley is so surprised right now,” Jackson said. “All summer and fall this is not what we’ve been about and things need to change ASAP.”
ASU’s 29 points are the fewest by the Sun Devils’ in a single game in the shot clock era.
Washington State came out shooting the ball well, hitting four of its first five shots en route to an early 10-0 advantage.
ASU’s first points didn’t come until just under three minutes into the first half when sophomore guard DJ Horne hit a three-pointer.
After that, the Cougars did not score for 11:24 – a seemingly impossible amount of time. During that frame, the Sun Devils were only able to muster all of five points with three coming off Horne’s triple. ASU’s scoring drought between that shot and redshirt junior guard Luther Muhammad’s jump shot was 7:38, which made the score 10-5 Washington State at the time.
“It was a lonely, sad feeling,” Hurley said of the performance. “We tried a lot of different things and nothing worked effectively.”
Horne was the lone bright spot for the Sun Devils, scoring 12 of the team’s 29 points.
The Cougars were given strong games by junior guard Noah Williams and sophomore center Dishon Jackson. Williams led all scorers with 14 points but didn’t get going until late in the first half. Dishon recorded four of the Cougars’ first seven points but with the score at 12-10 in favor of Washington State, Williams himself went on a 6-0 run to close out the half and create some separation at the break.
The Cougars led 18-10 at halftime.
“We scored 10 points,” Hurley said. “That is dreadful. And I thought ‘Wow, we could play that bad and only be down eight?’ It had to be encouraging but we weren’t able to be much better.”
The second half was all Washington State. Dishon Jackson started it off with a pair of free throws, ASU sophomore guard Jay Heath sandwiched in a jumper, then Williams knocked down a three to build the Cougars’ biggest lead to that point at nine.
ASU put up little resistance and was at times trading baskets but for the most part was just not scoring in large chunks of time. The Sun Devils went on scoring droughts of at least two or three minutes four times throughout the second half.
Washington State would go on four separate scoring runs of six points or more in the second half, and the lead was as high as 26 at 51-25 with just over a minute left to play.
The Sun Devils were again abysmal from the free-throw line, knocking down just two of eight chances. ASU shot just 21% from the field and an even worse 11.5% from beyond the arc – just three shots from deep went through the bottom of the net.
“It just felt like a circus out there, we were doing bizarre things even as the game got going and I’m sure some self-doubt came into play,” Hurley said. “It just continued to demoralize the whole group.”
Self-doubt seemed to seep into the minds of some struggling Sun Devils that continued their cold shooting ways on Wednesday.
“Us not hitting shots that we usually do is starting to get guys into their own heads a little bit,” Marreon Jackson said. “We gotta stay confident, keep our heads up and keep shooting.”
Fifteen turnovers also plagued the Sun Devils, as nine of the eleven players that stepped onto the court committed at least one.
“We need to play more unselfishly,” Jackson said. “We can’t worry about taking the last shot, we need to look for the best shot possible. The season is nowhere near over at all.”
The boo birds were released from the ASU faithful all night long and it continued to the final buzzer.
“I don’t have any complaints, they buy tickets and have the right to come in here to do that,” Hurley said. “I felt they deserved to boo me or to boo anyone they feel deserves the criticism for this, but I have no issue with it.”
Jackson hopes ASU turns the page as it heads to Eugene to battle Oregon on Sunday.
“We can’t keep dwelling on this, we knew it was going to be tough coming in,” Jackson said. “We’ve got some adversity right now and hopefully we respond like we’re expected to.”
