ASU splits southern California road trip, falls to UCLA 87-72

(Photo courtesy: ASU athletics)

The night before the commencement of second semester classes for Arizona State, (13-4,2-2) the Sun Devils learned a little bit about themselves in their 87-72 loss to the UCLA Bruins (13-3,2-1).

An ugly first half put the Sun Devils down early but ASU didn’t quit even when the margin of defeat continued to widen.  The 26 team fouls contributed greatly to the loss.

Four Sun Devils ended the game with four fouls. Jahii Carson was a part of that group as he picked up his fourth early in the second half. Carson’s trouble with the referees were accompanied by another poor shooting performance from the field as the sophomore shot four of 17 for 24 percent.

The player who deserved much of the credit for whittling down UCLA’s lead and keeping the game respectable for ASU was Jermaine Marshall who had 25 points on the night.

However valiant Marshall’s performance was Sunday, it did not end in the result of a comeback win, mainly because the Sun Devils dug themselves into a deep hole in the first half.

ASU started the game sloppily with poor ball handling. A particular segment of plays saw ASU turn the ball over to UCLA four times in a two and a half minute span.

That string of plays as well as a 10 minute stretch in the first half where the Bruins went on a 35-9 run was the reason UCLA went up 41-21 with about five minutes left before halftime.

During that run, Bruins’ freshman guard Zach LaVine scored 15 of his 19 points with a mixture of three-pointers, wind mill dunks, and euro step lay-ups and the Sun Devils faced a 50-33 deficit at halftime.

Herb Sendek’s mood in this game could be described as livid. The head coach filed into the locker room during the halftime break ahead of his coaches and players, and received a technical in the second half for yelling at the referees.

Brandan Kearney came off the bench for ASU in the loss with seven points in 21 minutes while Jordan Bachynski added 14 points and 8 boards.

The Sun Devils 2-2 PAC-12 conference record is in direct correlation to their erratic play. A style of play that needs to be tightened before ASU plays the University of Arizona on Thursday night in Tucson.

One thing is for sure, if ASU plays like they did against UCLA and gets caught in a great deficit early in the game it will be another long night for the Sun Devils.

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