(Photo: Max Zepeda/WCSN)
TEMPE – After ending its two-week hiatus from the win column on Thursday, Arizona State men’s basketball hoped to win back-to-back games for the first time since its trip to the state of Oregon on Jan. 14.
Returning home from the road trip saw ASU as high as 39 in the NCAA NET rankings – which is a metric that has implications on Tournament berths – but after enduring a four-game losing streak, the Sun Devils entered Saturday’s contest at 62, putting them on the wrong side of the many bracketologist’s bubble teams.
Entering Saturday’s contest, ASU had eight quadrant one and quadrant two games left on their schedule, producing the reality of needing a near-perfect finish to the season for head coach Bobby Hurley and his squad. In addition to the limited opportunities, ASU would need help from other programs to help move up in rankings, which complicates the logistics of a Tournament berth.
The hope for basketball in late March dwindled on Saturday, as ASU (16-8, 7-6 Pac-12) fell to the Oregon Ducks (14-10, 8-5) 75-70.
“That was a real battle,” Hurley said. “Two teams [that] are pretty desperate to win. I think the first eight minutes of the second half cost us. They built a lead, and we couldn’t overcome it and take the lead back. Even though guys out there were fighting like heck, scrambling and trying to make plays.”
ASU found success in the first half, holding a lead for much of the opening 20 minutes and relying on different avenues of success. Redshirt senior guard Luther Muhammad scored eight first-half points, providing ASU with a jolt after four consecutive misses.
Dating back to Thursday’s contest against Oregon State, ASU never held a lead greater than six points, and by halftime against Oregon, the Sun Devils failed to build a two-possession lead. Since Thursday’s game, 54 minutes and 12 seconds of the previous 60 minutes were separated by six or fewer points.
Regardless of the close scores, the Ducks found a way to pull away in the second half.
During the second half, the officials called 20 fouls against ASU, sending Oregon to the double bonus with 11:31 remaining in the game.
“I mean the fouls, obviously,” Hurley said. “When they’re getting free points, you just look at the stat sheet and if you want to just point to one thing, it’s the fouls. It’s 26 to 10 at the free-throw line. So that’s a tough number to overcome in a game, but it was also we lost containment of (junior guard Keeshawn) Barthelemy a few times. … So it’s like, it was a little bit of everything. We held them in the 30s in the first half of the shot like 60 percent in the second half.”
Defensively, the Sun Devils struggled to contain senior center N’Faly Dante, who scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half. The Ducks’ shooting percentage also ballooned in the second, skyrocketing from 38.7 percent to 59.1 percent.
“I think we just kind of lost focus on how we were playing in the first half and they came out and punched us in the mouth — like you said — in the second half and we just weren’t on our game,” junior guard DJ Horne said.
The disparity at the charity stripe was a cause of concern for ASU, especially when its opponent is in the double bonus for more than half of the 20 minutes. Hurley described the second half as a “circus,” but didn’t comment further because he didn’t want to “make things worse for me.”
“I definitely did feel like the refs had a big hand in this game as far as the whistle, but I just felt like we got to play better as a team,” Horne said. “You can’t just sit here and point the finger at the refs even though you guys saw what was going on out there.”
“I liked (senior forward/center Alonzo) Gaffney’s minutes. For (senior center) Warren (Washington) being out, he came in and was really active,” Hurley said. “We were able to switch everything. We started playing defense the way we’re capable of in those minutes. So, we overcame that.
“Devan’s, I would like to see him out on the floor there. At that point, I think we’d like six and a half minutes, I didn’t want to have to take him out. So certainly foul trouble impacted the type of lineups that we had out there.”
Despite the foul trouble, the Sun Devils gave themselves a chance to tie the game with a corner 3-pointer from fifth-year guard Desmond Cambridge Jr., who struggled on Saturday night, scoring his first basket at the 5:22 mark. Cambridge Jr.’s shot fell short, sealing the victory for Oregon.
“He was fighting himself, I think, throughout the game,” Hurley said. “He’s had so many good offensive games for us. That you know, he’s a threat to turn it on, like he did. So, we’re just gonna keep rolling with him. I think the play at the end of the first half didn’t help his confidence. He was very upset about the turnover and then them scoring a three to cut it to three. He was beating himself up about that at halftime, so we had to kind of get him back in the moment and stuff. But I mean, he’s out there and competing, and doing the best he can.”
The Sun Devils will hit the road next week to the Bay Area with games against Stanford and Cal on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
