Odum’s Go‑Ahead Shot Helps Hurley Shed Miller Demons In Maui

(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)

Four years, nine months and 30 days, that’s how long Arizona State men’s basketball fans waited for the next battle between ASU head coach Bobby Hurley and Sean Miller. After nine head-to-head matchups between 2015 and 2021, Arizona parted ways with Miller. He took a year-long break from coaching before being hired by Xavier in 2022.

272 games and two NCAA tournament appearances later, Texas lured Miller from the Musketeers last March. In July, the Maui Invitational released its Nov. 24 four-game opening slate — a schedule capped by the Sun Devils drawing the Longhorns to conclude day one. At long last, Hurley and Miller were set to meet again, with Miller entering Monday night on a two‑game winning streak.

During their Pac‑12 days, Miller’s Wildcats usually had Hurley’s number, winning nine of 12 faceoffs from 2015 to 2021. None of those ASU teams, however, had senior guard Moe Odum. Behind his 36‑point performance, including a game‑winning 3‑pointer, Hurley snapped Miller’s streak — and the Sun Devils (5‑1) squeaked by Texas (4‑2) 87‑86 to advance within the in-season tournament.

With about 17 seconds left, Texas led 86-84 and ASU had possession. Odum dribbled to the wing, drawing Texas junior forward Camren Heide. Two seconds later, freshman center Massamba Diop set a screen, and Odum spun off it, shaving more time from the clock. At 13 seconds, Odum pulled up for three, but Heide fought through the screen to contest the shot.

The ball was airborne for three seconds before a swish echoed across Lahaina Civic Center. Instantly, that sound was replaced by the roar of fans rising to their feet. In another timeline, neither sound comes — not if Texas junior guard Dailyn Swain converts both free throws as the Longhorns led by two with 22 seconds remaining.

Swain came up empty on his final two free throws, but his second‑half play was pivotal in keeping pressure on the Sun Devils. After shooting 2‑for‑6 in the first half, he went 8‑for‑8 in the second and finished with 24 points — 17 after halftime.

Along with Swain, the Longhorns’ offense flipped in the second half — shooting 76 percent from the field compared to 36.7 in the first. ASU held Texas to 16 points in the paint before halftime, but the Longhorns nearly doubled that with 30 in the second and scored on 25 of 38 possessions after converting 15 of 34 in the first.

With seven and a half minutes on the clock, Texas’ second‑half surge seemed poised to overwhelm the Sun Devils. The Longhorns took a 10-point lead off a 7-0 scoring run and by that point, Texas was outscoring ASU 42-27 in the second half. Then, the Sun Devils seized momentum with a 13‑2 run over the next two minutes, taking a 79‑78 lead.

The game would shift back-and-forth between a tie and a Longhorns lead before Odum’s three. After the shot, ASU clung to its lead for the last 10 seconds — the only stretch that mattered. Outside of that stretch, the Sun Devils were in front for just five minutes and 40 seconds throughout the night..

A win against Miller has been rare for Hurley — so is a performance like Odum’s. Before Monday, only three ASU players under Hurley had scored more than 35 points in a game — the last being Alonzo Verge Jr.’s 43 in 2019. For Odum, it marked his second 30‑point game of 2025, after scoring 31 against Portland in March while at Pepperdine.

Almost a week before that outing against Portland, Odum and the Waves faced Washington State. Coincidentally, the Sun Devils’ next opponent in Maui is the Cougars (3‑3), with tipoff set for 6 p.m. Arizona time Wednesday.

That matchup comes on the heels of Hurley adding another win over Miller, moving the head‑to‑head record to 4‑9. His luck has been far better against Washington State, as he and ASU have come out on top in six of the last eight meetings with the Cougars — a trend Sun Devil fans hope carries into the Maui Invitational semifinals.