Sun Devils fall short in 2OT shootout against No.12 Texas Tech

(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)

Double Overtime. No. 12 team in the country. 100-plus points for both teams. Absolute barn burner.

There’s little need to wax poetic about what was at stake when Arizona State Basketball entered United Supermarkets Arena against No. 12 Texas Tech. ASU had lost three consecutive games. The season had yet to be completely lost but has been trending negatively at alarming rates as the Sun Devils had lost six of their first nine conference games in the Big 12.

By almost every metric entering the contest in Lubbock, ASU should not have been able to compete with Texas Tech to the level it did, much less take a 45-44 lead into halftime and eventually push the Red Raiders (19-5, 10-3 Big 12) to two overtime periods before they could finally outgun the Sun Devils (12-12, 3-10 Big 12) 110-106.

Texas Tech ranked 11th in the country in offensive efficiency, according to KenPom, and 29th in defensive efficiency. By contrast, in the same categories, the Sun Devils ranked 114th and 40th, respectively. Also, ASU was without its star five-star freshman center Jayden Quaintance—the team’s leading rebounder and one of the nation’s best shot-blockers—due to injury. By arithmetic expectations, the game should not have been played as closely as it was.

However, basketball is played on a court and not in equations, and three-point shooting is the sport’s great equalizer.

ASU, behind its shorthanded guard-heavy lineup, was likely never going to be able to dominate inside and create easy buckets without the presence of its starting center. Plus, with junior center Shawn Phillips Jr. picking up three fouls in the first half, The Sun Devils had to find scoring further away from the basket during their spells with a five-guard lineup.

For much of the late first half and in portions of the second, ASU was forced to play with no player listed as a power forward or center on the floor. Naturally, the lack of size led to a further reliance on shooting from behind the arc.

One flamethrower the Sun Devils were able to finally set alight was freshman wing Amier Ali. The former four-star recruit, Ali had previously been shooting 25 percent from downtown, which attributed to his only 13 minutes a night. The Lubbock air set a fire beneath the freshman as he dropped in four of five attempts from downtown, good for 80 percent in his 34 minutes of game time.

The Sun Devils as a whole came out flaming hot from deep in the first half, pouring in seven made threes on 50 percent shooting. While the Texas Tech combination of sophmore forward JT Toppin and junior forward Darrion Williams dominated the paint, ASU kept its upset bid afloat on the buoy of its incendiary touch from 22+ feet away, finishing the game with 13 threes on 48 percent shooting. It was a game of trying to beat twos with threes.

The math equation figured to work out if ASU was scoring a point more each possession. The shooting was potent enough to keep the Sun Devils competitive, pushing the No. 12 team in the country to the brink at home, but it wasn’t enough to counteract the paint presence opposite ASU in a game that saw 18 lead changes and 14 ties.

In the absence of Quaintance and in the midst of Phillips’ foul trouble, Texas Tech did what likely any rational basketball team would do. Attacked the basket with a fury, and with its best players. The Red Raiders’ 6-foot-9-inch tall forward in Toppin has received first-round projections in the upcoming 2025 NBA draft from multiple media outlets.

With the Sun Devils deploying heavy minutes without any big man present, Toppin punished them down low to the tune of a career-high 41 points and 15 rebounds. Whether spinning off smaller defenders in the post, getting putback points, or simply muscling their senior point guard Alston Mason out of the way at one point, Toppin faced little resistance on his way to a career-scoring night.

Toppin’s 41 points were the most by any Big 12 player this season since UCF’s junior guard Keyshawn Hall scored 40 against these same Sun Devils about a month ago.

Williams also took the opportunity to bully ASU down low. The skilled forward did drill two threes but made most of his deposits near the basket, contributing 27 points. Toppin and Williams’ powerful efforts built a 50-to-40 advantage in points in the paint scoring.

Red Raider senior guard Kerwin Walton stole some of ASU’s fiery shooting for himself opening the second half by pouring in 13 points in five-and-a-half minutes with three triples in the span. However, it was a lack of paint presence that ultimately pushed ASU’s upset bid into Overtime.

With just ten seconds left, the Sun Devils led 90-88 and forced the home team to go the length of the floor. ASU forced a miss on the initial shot, but an offensive rebound and put-back by senior Texas Tech guard Chance Mcmillan tied the game at 90, sending it to an extra period and staving off the visiting upset for the time being.

The Sun Devils kept their spark alight in the overtime period behind the heroics of Mason and fellow senior guard Adam Miller. While Mason contributed only the fourth most points on his team, his role as the primary facilitator and ball-handler for the team was seen in his team-high six assists.

The size difference had a secondary effect as well as every ASU player started to be assessed too many fouls. Although, Mason’s leadership and presence for the first 46 consecutive minutes were crucial, his impact wasn’t truly felt until his forced absence, fouling out at the beginning of the second overtime.

After Mason played every single minute through the two halves and the first overtime period, ASU suffered four turnovers in the final four minutes without their leading ball-handler. The mistakes proved the final difference between the two sides.

After missing the last game due to suspension, Miller did his best to win ASU the game, exploding for 22 points, 14 of which came in the second half and overtime. His ability to hit two long contested midrange shots off the dribble in overtime kept the Sun Devils competitive once their lead guard had exited. Despite leading for 22 minutes and 35 seconds of game time, the lack of paint presence and costly late turnovers sentenced ASU to its fourth consecutive loss.