(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)
The road has not been friendly to Arizona State men’s basketball this season, after its loss to Kansas on the road and Baylor at home, head coach Bobby Hurley had expressed his frustrations with the new travel experiences and how his Sun Devils responded. Going into their away game vs Cincinnati, the Sun Devils are 0-6 in their last six road games, and after three consecutive losses a much-needed victory was needed over the middle of the pack Bearcats.
ASU was missing freshman guard Joson Sanon again, who has missed four of their last five games. Statistics show that the Sun Devils haven’t struggled much without him, averaging 75 points per game in the games he’s missed, but halves like 16-point second half against No. 9 Kansas, their lowest scoring half since 2021, shows that the offense isn’t the same without him.
Facing the Big 12’s second best scoring defense — a team that has held juggernaut teams like Kansas to their lowest scoring game of the season—the offensive output would be yet another talking point on Saturday. How would the offense respond to adversity and overcome a tough defense to get back in the conference win column?
ASU responded with their worst shooting first half of the season. Despite a late second-half push, a 22-point, 24.1% shooting first half proved too great a difference for ASU (10-7, 1-5 Big 12) to overcome, and it would lose this one to Cincinnati (12-5, 2-4 Big 12) 67-60.
Here are three takeaways.
Barely left the starting line
Just over four minutes into the game, ASU redshirt senior guard Adam Miller rose for a smothered corner three. It wasn’t a highly efficient shot, and it likely wasn’t what the Sun Devils had been looking for on that possession. However, one fact was true at that point: ASU had yet to score a field goal, and Miller burying the contested triple finally broke the seal for his team.
However, that didn’t lead to any improved results.
By halftime, the Sun Devils’ 24.1% field goal percentage (7-29) and 23.1% (3-13) shooting from downtown marked the worst shooting performance in a half by the unit all season. Cincinnati outscored the Sun Devils on the fast break, 15-1, and the Bearcats’ bench blitzed ASU’s bench with a 12-1 scoring advantage in that category.
ASU senior wing Basheer Jihad has spent much of the season as ASU’s leading scorer and was the second-leading scorer among active players entering the contest. His 0-for-6 line from the field in the first half contributed to the scoring woes for a team ranked only tenth in the Big 12 in scoring.
Much of ASU’s shooting woes came from an over-reliance on low-percentage shots, like the first contested three by Miller. Only 8 points in the paint out of 22 total first-half points meant ASU could not find high-efficiency attempts down low and was forced to try to keep up with Cincinnati’s fast-breaking style with jump shots, leading to another freezing cold stretch.
The Bearcats, in contrast, were able to force seven turnovers, creating the most consistent scoring opportunities on the break. That, combined with shooting at a 46.9 percent clip from the field, allowed them to pull away late in the first half with a 10-2 run in the final two minutes. That run afforded them a 36-22 lead entering the break at Fifth Third Arena.
-Devon Henderson
Quaintance steers second-half comeback
Clearly, something was said, either from Hurley or others, to remedy the woeful first half.
ASU unleashed a 20-6 run directly out of the gate in the second half to bring itself back to a 46-42 game. The Sun Devils attacked the paint with greater fervor in the second half, scoring 22 down low— as many as they scored in total in the first period. The consistent attack created more kick-out opportunities for higher-percentage three-point shots, which unlocked the Bearcats’ defense and eventually led to a more free-flowing offense overall for the Sun Devils.
Much of that was thanks to the growing offensive force that has been ASU freshman center Jayden Quaintance. Fourteen second-half points were the product of a rapidly expanding offensive repertoire for the 17-year-old. The dominant big man used his physicality in the paint to force multiple and-one opportunities, along with grabbing 14 rebounds on the game.
The former five-star, top-ten recruit started his ASU career with 16 points in his first three games combined. His offensive shortcomings had relegated him to being a dominant defensive force with minimal offensive impact.
In his last two games, including this Cincinnati matchup, Quaintance has scored 15 and 20 points. While he’s begun to turn the offensive corner, he hasn’t lost a step as one of the nation’s premier defensive cornerstones.
It wasn’t just the offense that dragged ASU back into the game initially, but also its vice-grip defense. While ASU battled a seal on its own basket in the first half, it laid down a manhole cover on Cincinnati’s in the second. At one point, the Bearcats went over eight minutes of game time without scoring a field goal.
Entering the contest, ASU had the 19th-best shot-blocking defense in the country, averaging 5.2 rejections a night—much of that thanks to Quaintance. He has led all power-forward players in total blocks for much of the season, and Cincinnati found out just how dominant he is in the paint in the second half on Saturday. Quaintance swatted four of his five total blocks in the second period, stifling the Bearcats’ offense into a near-dormant state.
Eventually, a run—including an open transition dunk by Cincinnati junior forward Dan Skillings Jr., followed by a three-pointer by graduate guard CJ Fredrick Jr., and an emphatic transition windmill slam by junior forward Dillon Mitchell—awoke the home crowd and got the Bearcats’ bucket-getting back on track.
Cincinnati rode the momentum of that two-minute stretch to a 67-60 victory over ASU. The Sun Devils’ offense did show up, along with a dominating defensive front, but the Bearcats found just enough to expel ASU to its first conference loss of the season. This loss sent ASU to second-to-last in the Big 12.
-Devon Henderson
BJ Freeman Injured, Returns Quickly
Around 9:55 in the second half, as ASU was rallying from a 17-point deficit to a six-point deficit, senior forward BJ Freeman drove down the baseline for a contested layup, missed the shot, and stumbled hard on his right leg, resulting in a nerve-racking fall. Freeman rolled across the ground, writhing in pain, with many spectators and fans at home holding their breath for what appeared to be a distressing leg injury.
With Sanon out, the Sun Devils’ rotation was already stretched thin, and while it was difficult to overcome, ASU still had a game to play, since it was just a four-point game.
Although, just minutes after being unable to put any weight on his leg, Freeman was seen on the bench with a knee brace on, still in visible pain as he tried to cheer on his teammates standing on one leg. Then at the 8:08 mark, just one minute and 47 seconds after his seemingly gruesome injury, Freeman was back in the game ready to help the Sun Devils close it out.
Four of ASU’s five starters played 36 minutes or more tonight, with freshman forward Amier Ali and senior center Shawn Phillips Jr. receiving only 15 minutes of combined playing time. The Sun Devils’ season has been marked by a lack of depth and a tiny rotation due to injuries and players who have yet to earn playing time, so a supposed injury to ASU’s best scorer would have been a huge blow for Hurley.
Coming into tonight, BJ Freeman had set season highs in back-to-back games, the most recent being a 26-point performance against UCF in which he hit five three-pointers. His return to this game could be blamed on a depth issue. Hurley runs a top-heavy lineup, and if there was any chance Freeman could return to help them steal a win, Hurley would take it.
Freeman’s surprising comeback to the game didn’t make much of an impact, as the Sun Devils would cool off after their run that brought them within four points, and Freeman would only score two points after returning to the game. After their fourth consecutive defeat, they’ll need Freeman more than ever, so perhaps his return indicates that his injury was not too significant.
– George Lund
