(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)
Arizona State Men’s Basketball senior guard Remy Martin, in what could have been his final game, took a deep breath as he stepped to the free-throw line. His Sun Devils trailed Washington State by one with 54 seconds remaining in ASU’s first game of the Pac-12 Tournament, an essential win-or-go-home game for both teams. The ball echoed in the hollow stadium as Martin, a near 80% shooter from the free-throw line, pounded the rock in preparation of the critical trip to the charity stripe.
His first attempt bounced high off the butt of the rim, with his second clanking off the right iron. There was a dead silence – almost a sense of disbelief from the ASU bench.
Just as it seemed that the life had been sucked out of the Sun Devils, Martin stripped Washington State senior guard Isaac Bonton with 35 seconds remaining. Martin and fellow senior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. started to run in transition. With the numbers in their favor on the fastbreak, Martin dropped the ball off to Verge Jr., who fumbled what would have been an easy go-ahead lay-in for ASU.
The Sun Devils’ head coach Bobby Hurley then opted to substitute Verge Jr. out of the game for senior guard Holland Woods. It would be Woods making the key stop, as the Cougars inbounded the ball from the opposing baseline to their sophomore combo guard Noah Williams. Williams was met with a double team instantaneously, and with his attention divided, Woods took the vetted gamble and set up a momentous jump ball.
“The ball went off my leg and [I] kinda lost it, mentally,” Verge Jr. said. “But my guys just said, ‘Stay with it bro, we [are] here, we [are] good.’ They were just letting me know that we still could win this. And Holland [Woods] did a great job listening to coach [Hurley] and getting that jump ball – [because] we knew that the next jump ball would be ours.”
ASU, after regaining possession with 28 seconds remaining and down 59-58, called for a 30 second timeout. Verge Jr. was subbed back in for Woods, as ASU drew up a play to save its season.
With the clock dwindling down and his senior season on the line, Verge Jr. gave it all he had. The Chicago-native surveyed the court, hesitated, then slashed hard to the right and flipped up a high-arcing floater. The shot went down, gave ASU a 60-59 lead with 11 seconds remaining, and turned out to be the game-winner for the Sun Devils, who survived the Cougars 64-59 on Wednesday afternoon to advance toward a date with Oregon on Thursday.
“I was really trying to see what [they] were giving me, I knew they couldn’t keep me in front of them,” Verge Jr. said. “I just wanted to get to my spot and try to get a floater up, which I did.”
After Verge Jr.’s shot, Hurley attentively called his final timeout to prevent a quick running bucket from the Cougars. Washington State inbounded quickly and pushed the floor with pace.
Perhaps it was too much.
Williams received the inbound and sprinted down the lane through traffic. As he approached the rim, ASU sophomore guard Jaelen House slapped the ball right out of his shooting pocket with five seconds left on the clock. Washington State head coach Kyle Smith chucked his water bottle in frustration as House gleefully chewed out the final seconds of the Cougars’ campaign. Smith was assessed a technical foul, while the final possession ended in ASU free-throw attempts.
Martin finished with just six points on 2-10 shooting for ASU. A myriad of contested shots and lack of flow plagued the veteran throughout the game.
The Sun Devils played to their strengths throughout the game though, despite the struggles of Martin and the unavailability of their freshman tandem featuring guard Josh Christopher and forward Marcus Bagley. ASU consistently got out in transition and made plays due to the contagious energy of House and the shot-making of Verge Jr.
“I think it is an example of how far we have come,” Hurley said. “We beat a good basketball team and we did it without our best player having a normal game that he is capable of having.
“He [Martin] is just all in to win. He did not want to come out at the 11 minute mark [in the second half]. He had just hit a three but I wanted to get him a minute [to rest]. Then we really turned it up and the other guys were playing great and he said, ‘No, coach, let them go.’ So he sat an extra two or three minutes. I was not planning to keep him there that long but he is all in to win and not worried about his stat line right now.”
The “guys” that Martin vouched for included House, who moved at the speed of a Tasmanian devil and caused headaches for Washington State all night. His constant ball pressure and efficiency in transition as a facilitator added another layer of depth to a damaged ASU roster.
The sophomore finished with eight points while leading the team in rebounds and assists (six boards and five dimes). Those totals fail to paint the full picture though, as House brought a radiance that ASU has often lacked throughout the year.
In the low-scoring affair, House allowed ASU to create opportunities to score outside of the traditional half-court set. He also gave the Sun Devils a glue guy who stuck on opposing guards.
“Jaelen House is one of those guys [where] you can put him on any team and he is going to flourish because of the type of player he is,” Verge Jr. said. “He does everything that other people don’t want to do. Those are the type of people you need on your team because they don’t complain, they don’t worry about shot selection, they just go out there and they just play.”
In the first half, ASU forced 10 turnovers and struggled mightily from the field. Senior forward Kimani Lawrence and Verge Jr. led the early charge, combining for 14 of the Sun Devils’ 25 first half points.
The tournament jitters seemed fully in effect otherwise. Both teams struggled to take care of the ball, as they combined for 16 first half turnovers. ASU and Washington State went a combined 2-16 from three-point land.
But things started to warm up as Bonton and Verge Jr. traded second half buckets, with the latter scoring 19 points in the second half alone. Bonton, who is also a talented scorer, had 19 total points and three second-half threes.
One of them felt like a dagger. Before launching a near 30 foot attempt from the left wing, Bonton looked left and side-stepped quickly to the right, set his feet and dialed up the shot from the T-Mobile logo. It went down with nothing but nylon, and put Washington State up 53-49 with a little less than four minutes remaining in the game.
With Bonton pouring the hot sauce all over the Sun Devils, ASU stuck their defensive pest in House in the hip pocket of Bonton. But with ASU up 57-56 and 1:28 remaining in the game, Bonton went back into his bag of tricks. This time he pulled out a hesitation, side-step jumper from the other wing.
House was having none of it. The Sun Devil guard stood on ten toes for perhaps the biggest defensive possession of his life, contesting the tough jumper and forcing a miss from Washington State’s offensive alpha.
“I thought we had great defensive contributions from Jaelen House especially,” Hurley said. “He ball pressured and [was] trying to guard Bonton, who’s a heck of a player. There were some really important plays made defensively by a number of our guys which helped us get the victory today.”
Defense might win championships, but the Sun Devils will perhaps need more than that if they want to upset the tournament’s No. 1 seed in Oregon on Thursday. Most notably, that would likely include a heftier contribution from Martin.
