Sun Devils lose fourth straight game, fall below .500 in conference play

(Photo Credit: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)

On New Year’s Eve — just over a month ago — ASU was down 10 points at halftime against California on the road. The Sun Devils had shot just 30.1% from the field and allowed Cal to get out to a double-digit lead while scoring just 35 first-half points.

Five weeks later, this time hosting the Golden Bears in Tempe, the Sun Devils were faced with a nearly identical situation. Another embarrassing first-half performance saw the Sun Devils shoot just 34.5% from the floor and 30% from deep, and ASU was once again down double-digits to Cal at the half.

Five weeks ago, ASU came back from that deficit. On Saturday, it did not.

The Sun Devils (11-11, 5-6 Pac-12) fell 81-66 to Cal (9-13, 5-6 Pac-12) in a game that was over after the first 10 minutes.

“We weren’t connected as a team in the first half,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “It was five individuals out there playing. I mean, some guys didn’t play well, but you gotta be on the same page.”

Exactly halfway through the first 20 minutes, ASU was already down 14 points, thanks to a blazing start from the Golden Bears. Graduate guard Jalen Cone hit a three-pointer to go up 24-10 at the ten-minute mark, capping off a stretch that saw the Golden Bears hit six of their first seven threes.

Cal came out punching, and ASU didn’t have a response.

“The effort wasn’t there in the first half from a defensive standpoint or defending the three-point line,” graduate forward Alonzo Gaffney said. “We just got to be better.”

Hurley said that ASU came into the game wanting to stop one of Cal’s big three threats — Cone junior guard Jalyon Tyson, and graduate forward Fardaws Aimaq, who have each been extremely strong pieces for their team. Tyson’s 20.1 points per game rank second in the Pac-12, and Aimaq’s 15.0 points per game are just a bonus on top of his conference-leading 10.5 rebounds per game.

In the first half, Hurley was successful in limiting Cone, but Tyson and Aimaq combined for 18 points and 12 rebounds, dominating the first 20 minutes.

“We wanted to try and neutralize at least one of those three guys and try and maybe chop a couple of points off their season averages being we’re on our home floor, but that didn’t happen.”

Hurley, obviously unhappy with his team’s first-half performance, made a huge change at the break, making a ‘coach’s decision’ to bench senior guard Jose Perez for the entire second half after an ugly 0-for-4 performance from the field.

“That’s what I had to do for that half to try and see if we could climb back in the game,” Hurley said. “We got very close to getting back in it. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

After beginning the conference season with a 4-0 mark, the Sun Devils have since dropped five of their last six games in a losing streak reminiscent of the one they endured during non-conference play. Following the team’s embarrassing 65-46 loss to Northwestern at the Footprint Center, Hurley emphasized “fighting for the program” and seeing “who wants to move forward with the program.”

The Sun Devils answered Hurley’s call, rattling off those four consecutive wins to begin Pac-12 play and playing some of their best basketball of the year. However, after temporary improvement, the team seems to have returned to the mode they were in during non-conference play.

“It has come full circle back to the same things that haunted us in some of our non-conference games,” Hurley said. It’s really just a circular movement all the way back to that [Northwestern] game from how we were from a team dynamic standpoint, and then we made some adjustments and played the right way for several games. Now we’ve come all the way back.”

ASU is going to have to make a change extremely quickly, as its schedule begins to get tougher. The Sun Devils still have road trips to face both the mountain schools and the Los Angeles schools, as well as two remaining games against the strongest team in the Pac-12, Arizona.

It is difficult to see a path to March Madness that does not include ASU winning the Pac-12 Tournament, but that doesn’t mean that the Sun Devils are simply going to stop playing.

“It’s not great considering the way we started that we’re sitting where we are right now, but it’s not in my makeup to quit,” Hurley said. “That’s not what I’ve done my whole life, so if that’s what they’re looking for from their leader, they’re not going to get that. We’re just going to look at each individual game and see how we could try and turn us around.”