(Photo: Alyssa Buruato/WCSN)
TEMPE — With 22 seconds remaining in the first half, junior guard Adam Miller drove to the rim as the packed-out crowd at Desert Financial Arena rose amidst a six-point run leaving USC with no answer.
So when the Trojans turned the ball over for a 15th time, Miller’s up-and-under layup forced an eruption at the end of the first half by the Sun Devil fans, as the suffocating screams took over the building.
For Arizona State men’s basketball (11-7, 5-2), Saturday afternoon’s game was the second-largest student section turnout in program history with 4,325 students filling the bottom and top sections. The energy could be felt as soon as the gates opened when thousands of eager people flocked to the lower bowl on the east side of the arena over an hour before tipoff, carrying over ecstatic energy for the entire 40 minutes as fans catapulted their team to an 82-67 victory.
This energy sparked life into the Sun Devils as they went on multiple dominant stretches in the first and second half, igniting the path to a 15-point win after back-to-back losses in the Pac-12.
ASU head coach Bobby Hurley is proud of the intensity his team plays with and knows how crucial home court advantage is at this point in the season, admittedly thanking the fans after Saturday’s game.
“Just want to give a shoutout to our crowd,” Hurley said. “[Saturday] was the second highest student attendance in school history outside [the] game last year versus UCLA. So I’m just really excited that our players have the opportunity to play in that environment.”
For the players the environment is everything, having the opportunity to showcase their talents in the spotlight has made for an exciting spectacle in Tempe.
Graduate guard Jose Perez, who scored 20 points for the fifth time at Desert Financial Arena this season, knows how important the home crowd is for his team and he feels it makes them unstoppable.
“I hope it’s like this every game for the rest of the year we won’t lose,” Perez said. “That helps us knowing they’re out there cheering for us and we’re going hard for them.”
The impact of the crowd on ASU is clear on the court, leading the Pac-12 in turnover margin at +3.29 turnovers a game, smothering defense and high-intensity basketball has taken over in Tempe.
Starting point guard, junior Frankie Collins is third in the NCAA in steals-per-game at 3.1, he managed to snag six steals against the Trojans, to add along to the other six steals the Sun Devils had Saturday afternoon.
As USC compiled 22 turnovers for the game, the tide continued to shift in ASU’s favor. Avalanching on, the team was able to turn defense into offense efficiently, winning the points-scored-off-turnovers battle 24-to-9.
Junior guard Jamiya Neal was able to take advantage of his fast break opportunities, which allowed him to score 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Neal spoke after the game about a transition dunk he had off of a steal to extend his teams lead to 20 points late in the contest.
“When I got the dunk, everybody was loud and it was good to look around and see everybody cheering and the arena filled with fans, I love it,” Neal said.
When USC goes on the road, it brings a spectacle of big-name talent that gets fans in the door. Freshman guard Isaiah Collier is projected to be a top-three pick in the 2024 NBA draft, according to Sports Illustrated, who averages over 15 points per game for the program.
Collier has been sidelined with a hand injury, yet the 6-foot-5 guard is only the second most popular player on the Trojans roster.
Freshman guard Bronny James, son of NBA superstar Lebron James, is the star of the show in every gym he enters. James was serenaded with jeers and boos every time he touched the ball all game.
“I mean, I guess that it just comes with the territory,” Neal said about the booing James received.
ASU found numerous ways to earn extra possessions, including steals it managed to earn 14 offensive rebounds with junior forward Bryant Selebangue having nine of his own. His high level of energy is appreciated by his teammates as his playstyle can impact winning on any night.
“He doesn’t really realize how big of a piece he is,” Perez said. “He had nine [points] and ten [rebounds] at halftime and that just more or less basically won the game for us.”
For three straight games before USC, the Sun Devils lost the second-half battle, being outscored by an average of over 11 points in second halves, however, they managed to hold off their opponents, only allowing seven points over the last 8 minutes-and-30 seconds of play.
“[USC is] too good of a team with players to not make a run at us,” Hurley said. “They cut it down to three and five at one point. We immediately kind of rallied again, we got a [10-second violation], and we’re able to get back into that mode of being aggressive on defense.”
Saturday afternoon was a show at Desert Financial Arena and when ASU has its fans behind the team, the energy is contagious and takes over when the team needs it most.
“That we had that segment to end the first half which was dynamite the way we went on that run,” Hurley said. “I don’t know if I’ve heard DFA that loud in a long time.”
