(Photo: Rebecca Striffler/WCSN)
Arizona State men’s basketball found itself in a deep hole – a 16-point hole to be exact. Saturday’s matchup against OSU (7-11, Pac-12 1-6) for ASU (15-3, 6-1) was off the heels of a stellar group performance against Oregon State, which saw the offense produce its best outing of the season, making the first half a massive juxtaposition for Sun Devil fans.
With five minutes left in the first half, the Sun Devils were shooting 23.5 percent from the field and were down by double-digits. The possibility of losing in this fashion in Corvallis sours the dominant performance in Eugene and the road trip in general.
Head coach Bobby Hurley brought out the full-court press against an inexperienced Beavers team that sparked a huge run, as ASU outscored OSU 56 to 35 the rest of the way to steal one on the road 74-69.
ASU’s press and defensive intensity contributed to 16 Beavers’ turnovers, gifting the Sun Devils 25 points. The defeat marks the program’s largest road comeback since 2018 and its first 3-0 start on the road in Conference play in 42 years, as well as sweeping the state of Oregon for the first time since 2010.
“Anytime you go on the road in a conference game, you’re going to find yourself in a dogfight,” Hurley said. “Road sweeps are rare in this league.”
The first 15 minutes of regulation for the Sun Devils were filled with uncharacteristic mistakes as the young Beavers were asserting their dominance early.
OSU’s scorching shooting fueled its early 16-point lead. The Beavers started the game shooting 6-of-8 from beyond the arc, led by freshman forward Michael Rataj. The German sharpshooter dropped 12 first-half points while shooting 2-of-2 from the perimeter. Rataj dropped a season-high 18 points last game against Arizona and continued his hot streak by leading the Beavers’ fast start.
“We got down a significant margin really early,” Hurley said. “[The Beavers] were hitting shots. They hit some late clock [and] tough contested shots.”
The usual attentive ASU defense consistently was caught ball-watching during multiple possessions while struggling with off-ball defense losing track of players, and allowing the Beavers to find wide-open 3-point shots.
Despite the lackluster perimeter defense, ASU typically makes up for those shortcomings with a solid interior presence. But in the first half, OSU took it to the paint with ease and aggression, attacking the rim and embracing the contact. The Beavers had 16 points in the paint and had a healthy balance of dividing up the scoring attacks to keep the Sun Devils on their toes.
“They had an advantage over us in the paint. We allowed them to shoot 55 percent,” Hurley said. “Which is uncharacteristic of what we do for most of the year.”
While the defense struggled to match its usual standards, ASU’s offense found itself in a familiar runt, haunting the program throughout the season. The first 10 minutes saw the Sun Devils with only five points and shooting around 10 percent. ASU typically finds most of its offensive success by attacking the paint and flexing its strength and athleticism.
But, OSU clustered the paint with multiple players to prevent ASU from establishing any rhythm. Thus, it forced the Sun Devils to rely on their hit-or-miss outside shooting, which was missing early. 2-for-7 from beyond the arc, and ASU couldn’t muster up points early in the contest.
“We missed layups. We missed some foul shots,” Hurley said. “It was a little bit of everything in the first half,”
After the deficit rose to 16 with 5 minutes left, ASU became the enforcer, exerting its will to pressure OSU ball handlers. The Sun Devils forced ten turnovers against the Beavers in the first half, leading to 14 points.
“I thought our pressure at the end of the half enabled us to get back in it,” Hurley said. “We weren’t making them miss, but we were creating some turnovers.”
OSU had four freshmen in its starting lineup, and the experience started to show, unable to beat the tenacious full-court press. The defense gifted the Sun Devils easy buckets, allowing senior guard Desmond Cambridge Jr. to find his rhythm. Cambridge Jr. had 11 first-half points and fueled a 21-8 run to end the half. ASU made eight of its last nine field goals to bring the deficit down to three entering the locker room.
“I was walking down to the locker room with [assistant and former ASU player] Mickey Mitchell, and I mentioned to him, ‘how are we down three right now,'” Hurley said. “We had to overcome a lot.”
The Sun Devils kept rolling in the second half, applying pressure on the defensive end. ASU’s energy picked up tenfold on its half-court defense, erasing OSU’s confidence from the first half. Sun Devil guards took up the challenge to pressure multiple feet off the perimeter to not allow any room for the Beavers to get comfortable.
“We picked up our level of intensity defensively, and we played cleaner on offense,” Hurley said. “We picked up our intensity and our activity on defense to our press, and I think that kind of woke our guys up because we were not moving at the same pace that Oregon State was for the first eight minutes of the game.”
The suffocating defense from beyond the arc forced many late shot-clock jumpers that missed the mark. OSU, coming off a 55 percent shooting first half, shot a measly 29.6 percent from the field and only had six paint points.
The ASU offense – continuing to feed off its defense – found its identity by attacking the rim. High reliance on backdoor cuts led to multiple easy paint points. The Sun Devils’ furious paint attack was led by senior guard Devan Cambridge, who finished with 13 points. ASU’s 28 paint points fueled the run that gave its first lead, which it would maintain for most of the second half.
With under two minutes left, ASU had held OSU to 18 second-half points and boasted a nine-point lead hoping to sweep the state of Oregon. However, a 7-0 run in 35 seconds, sparked by a Beaver offensive rebound off a missed free throw for a 3-point shot, cut the Sun Devils’ lead to two.
“The one thing we got to do, though, late [in] game, we get up nine points, we go to rebound the ball,” Hurley said. “We had a couple of bad rebounding possessions, and they were able to hit some threes and cut the deficit and make it a tight finish.”
A Collins free throw extended ASU’s lead to three with a little over eight seconds to go, giving OSU a chance to tie. However, much like the rest of the second half, the Beavers failed to crack the Sun Devils’ aggressive on-ball defense. Freshman guard Jordan Pope threw an ill-advised pass, deflected by sophomore guard Frankie Collins that landed right into the hand of senior forward Alonzo Gaffney to send ASU back to Tempe with the win 74-69.
The Cambridge Brothers combined for 34 of ASU’s 74 points and continue to be a catalyst for the program’s success. When Devan scores in the double figures, the Sun Devils are undefeated on the season, and Saturday’s performance was Desmond’s second consecutive 21-point game.
The duo will be vital for ASU as it travels back to Tempe, as the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 standings will host No. 7 UCLA on Thursday.
“We have three true conference road wins, 3-0 on the road, which is great. You can’t ask for a whole lot more,” Hurley said. “I think it amps up the magnitude of Thursday’s game, but I certainly want to enjoy this one.”
