(Photo: Noah Findling/WCSN)
Arizona State took care of business on Sunday, beating Washington State 66-47 on Sunday afternoon. It was a bounce back from its first Pac-12 conference loss against Washington earlier this week.
With Arizona State (12-3, 1-1) still trying to find consistency within its lineup, senior guard Jermaine Marshall showed he shouldn’t be forgotten.
Marshall had four points in ASU’s last game against UW. Against Washington State (7-7, 0-2), Marshall wasn’t going to let that happen again.
Though he scored only eight points in the first half, Marshall took control of the game for ASU in the second, with 18 points against a WSU zone defense. Marshall finished with 26 points, four rebounds and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line.
With Marshall leading the way, ASU established its tempo in the second half and took control. Sophomore guard Jahii Carson finished with 14 points and senior forward Shaquielle McKissic finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Two huge blocks by senior center Jordan Bachynski and a hot hand by Marshall grew ASU’s lead to 10 points with 13:55 left in the second half.
ASU relies on huge scoring runs to win games, mostly led by its up-tempo offense while pushing the floor after missed shots by its opponents. The team has quick players that can go coast to coast with ease so transition offense will be key for the Sun Devils moving forward.
ASU can be a half-court team, and showed it against WSU and its zone defense. Marshall in particular found the holes in the zone and exploited them, giving Arizona State the opportunities needed to pull away in the second half.
Ball movement was also crucial for the Sun Devils as its passing improved greatly in the second half and giving ASU players open shots.
The Devils caught a break with the absence of WSU’s junior guard DaVonté Lacy for most of the game, as Lacy had to leave the game with 6:23 left in the first half due to a rib injury. Coming into the game, Lacy was averaging 18.9 points this season.
During the first half, the big difference keeping WSU in the game was the 11 ASU turnovers compared to the seven WSU had committed. By the end of the game, ASU and WSU each had 14 turnovers.
Carson was the main offender, turning the ball over five times.
However, a key stat was Arizona State’s 19 points off of the 14 Washington State turnovers, while the Cougars only managed seven points off of ASU mistakes.
The Sun Devil defense stepped up in the second half, giving ASU much-needed stops, especially off of turnovers, to give some space between itself and WSU.
A troublesome factor for the first half for ASU was their dismal 36 percent field goal shooting. In the Sun Devils’ first conference game against UW, they only shot 39 percent from the field in the first half.
The second half saw improvement for ASU, shooting 48 percent from the field.
However, off-and-on junior forward Jonathan Gilling struggled, going 0-5 in the first half. He didn’t even attempt a shot in the second.
ASU only made two three-pointers against UW. By the media timeout at the 11:21 mark of the first half in this one, ASU had already matched that mark, ending the game with nine threes.
With such athletic and talented players, ASU has the components to win games and be competitors in the Pac-12, but the current issue for the Sun Devils has to be consistency across the board.
Contact this author via email sjpell@asu.edu or on twitter @sammyjade18
