(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
TEMPE – With 1:04 remaining in the game and coming off a 30-second timeout, Arizona State men’s basketball was down four points in a very competitive Territorial Cup matchup against the Arizona Wildcats. ASU needed a bucket, so what was the “design play” from the timeout, a freshman guard Joson Sanon jumper? A pass inside to freshman center Jayden Quaintance?
How about a heavily contested fadeaway shot from senior forward Basheer Jihad, who had missed his previous four attempts, early in the shot clock.
These disastrous late-game moments that will be remembered as the “collapse” that cost the Sun Devils the game, but long spells of no scoring, an inability to rebound on defense, or just an inability to advance the ball past the halfcourt line had a greater influence on the ASU loss.
The Sun Devils failed to execute, and the Wildcats were never going to let ASU get away with it. Senior guard Caleb Love scored 27 points for the Wildcats (15-6, 9-1 Big 12), giving the Sun Devils (12-9, 3-7 Big 12) no room for error as Arizona won 81-72.
With as many close losses as the Sun Devils have had recently, including the late game collapse to No.3 Iowa State and the overtime loss to Baylor, you can point to a plethora of reasons for these collapses.
“We lost this game because, and I don’t want to have to diagnose every time why we lose like, eventually you gotta do the things necessary to win,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “It’s getting a little old to walk in there after the game and explain why we just lost.
The Sun Devils lost because they couldn’t limit what the Wildcats have done well all season. Arizona is top 30 in the country in rebounding and dominated the boards today. They’re top 60 in free throw shooting, but ASU gave them 22 attempts. ASU knew Love would have to be the guy to beat it, and 27 points will undoubtedly do the trick.
When you look at the box score, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb, the rebounding discrepancy, particularly on the offensive side. The offensive rebounding, which totaled nine in the second half for U of A, continued to slow the Sun Devils’ momentum in this contest. They were unable to execute. Whether it was senior center Shawn Phillips in the game, Quaintance, or both, that was ASU’s Achilles heel tonight.
The Wildcats only had 14 second chance points as a result, but by restricting the Sun Devil possessions and really stopping them from stringing together a sequence of points, stops, points, stops, every offensive rebound, every added Wildcat possession, felt like a punch in the face.
“It’s just because we’re playing longer possessions,” senior guard Adam Miller said. “That’s shooting us in the foot. We gotta close out the play, and then that gives us a chance to go down and score. I think we turned it over in their press, but I think we turned it over too many times in transition in the second half when we could have had buckets.”
Coming into today, Arizona had an average of 39.9 rebounds per game, 31% of which were offensive, so ASU knew this was a squad that worked hard in the trenches. It also knew Caleb Love would be fired up after scoring 22 points against Iowa State in the win. Despite this prior knowledge, the Sun Devils let him take off, and whenever the Wildcats needed a bucket, you could guarantee he was getting the ball and pounding a shot in someone’s face.
Again, ASU were unable to execute.
Turnovers have been a large issue for the Sun Devils this season. In their loss to Iowa St, they had 18 of them, a jarring number that would be the difference in any loss. In the first half of today’s game, ASU only committed four, a large reason that despite shooting 30.6% in the first half, it was only down one.
The Wildcats changed that very quickly in the second.
At the 16-minute mark, U of A launched a full-court press, putting additional pressure on the Sun Devils’ ball handlers. The simple, yet seemingly startling defensive game plan, resulted in six turnovers in just over three minutes of game time. ASU went from up five to down two at the end of that three-minute span.
“Part of it was that stretch where we were up five and turned the ball over twice,” Hurley said. “They got a dunk off one, and they got a lot of life out of those couple of possessions, and you can’t do that. You have a team down. You had a good start to the second half, and we built a lead, and then we gave the ball away a couple of times.”
Again and again, the Sun Devils were unable to execute.
The Sun Devils found yet another way to lose, perhaps not for one reason in particular, but the broader theme remains that this Sun Devil team is unable to execute in crucial aspects of the game, which has continued to be the reason they cannot finish games against opponents despite being appearing to be the better team for close to 30 minutes.
“Winning teams find ways to win, losing teams find ways to lose.” Miller said.
Until the Sun Devils can play winning basketball, they will be exactly what Miller describes, a losing team. The final minutes of every game are incredibly indicative of what kind of basketball team you are, with Iowa State, Arizona, and Baylor finding ways to win no matter what they looked like for the previous 35 minutes.
The Sun Devils finding ways to lose no matter what they looked like for the previous 35 minutes.
“We just haven’t got it done in our building,” Hurley said “You can’t lose four conference games at this point in the season, in a big 12 race, and expect to be in the picture, we haven’t done a good job. A lot of these games have been close, and we’ve been there, but moral victories, like who cares.”
