No. 6 Arizona uses late surge to squash rival Arizona State's upset bid
Arizona State took on its rival for the second time this month looking for a bit of redemption. When the Sun Devils faced Arizona 10 days ago at McKale Center they lost by 45 points, giving up 105.
They got it. Sort of.
The result wasn't any different on Wednesday night in Tempe. No. 6 Arizona proved once again to be a formidable foe, but the Sun Devils turned in a game effort, this time falling 85-67. The game was actually more competitive than the score would indicate as ASU trailed by just five points with seven minutes left in the contest.
Arizona (22-6, 13-4), which remained atop the Pac-12 with the win, had five players score in double figures, led by Kylan Boswell who tallied 17, one off a career-high. Caleb Love, the leading candidate for conference player of the year honors, was next with 16 while Oumar Ballo had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
ASU (14-15, 8-10), which was coming off an upset of No. 21 Washington State, was led by Adam Miller with 16 points and Frankie Collins with 15.
"They are a very loaded team that has the chance to do a lot of damage the rest of the way," ASU coach Bobby Hurley said.
"I felt like being down 14 was sneaky good for us. Knowing we had possession of the ball, knowing that we settled for a lot of jump shots early in the first half and couldn't really get anything done around the basket. I think when I used the time out it was like 28 to 12 and I think it got to 30 to 12, but we played basically even the rest of the way for the last 30 minutes. We just had to clean things up and we can't have turnovers against them. We can't have points taken off the board for us to go the other way to them against a team like this. They're just too good of a team.”
Let's take a closer look at the final regular-season game between the rivals as members of the Pac-12:
What went right for Arizona State
Stayed out of foul trouble early: When the teams played in Tucson this was a big issue. Both ASU bigs, Alonzo Gaffney and Shawn Phillips Jr., fell into serious foul trouble just two minutes into the game and both eventually fouled out even though they played just 11 minutes each. But on Wednesday, Gaffney played 13 minutes in the first half and only had one foul. Phillips picked up two but the second one came with five minutes left in the half. Phillips ended up with three and Gaffney had only two. Arizona was actually in worse shape when it came to fouls as Boswell and Jaden Bradley both had four.
ASU answered to start the second half: In Tucson, ASU trailed at the half 49-31 and it only got worse from there. This time ASU was down 41-27 despite shooting only 29% (9-for-31) so the deficit could have been worse. They came out and made a game of it, starting with a 10-2 run and pulling within six twice at 41-35 and 43-37. Arizona made it a double-digit game for good with 5:28 to play on a 3-pointer by Love that made it 69-58.
Got to the line: With the size Arizona has, particularly in Ballo, it can be intimidating and teams can fall into the trap of settling for jump shots but ASU did a good job of driving the lane. It ended up with 25 free throw tries, making 18 with Jose Perez the biggest factor in that as usual. He made eight of his 11 attempts. Arizona had 18 free throws, making 13.
What went wrong for Arizona State
Rebounding: When ASU loses, this is usually a big part of the equation. The Wildcats won this category 43-30 and that included a 15-5 advantage in second-chance points. A good example of the importance here came late in the first half. ASU had cut the deficit from 18 to 14 at 38-24 and was looking for a defensive stop. Arizona missed three shots, only to come up with the offensive rebounds each time, the possession ending with a 3-pointer by Love that stretched the lead back to 17. Ballo led Arizona with 13 while Love had eight. ASU had four different players with five.
Turnovers at the wrong time: ASU only had eight turnovers, and only three through 30 minutes, but there were several that proved pivotal. With 9:05 left and Arizona up 57-49, Jamiya Neal got a steal and raced toward the Sun Devils end, only to be stripped of the ball by Jaden Bradley, who went the other way for an easy two points and a four-point swing. In the last 3:07, ASU had three turnovers, one apiece by Neal, Miller and Phillips, and all three resulted in Arizona points.
Poor shooting in half-court: ASU is best when it is off and running and not stuck in a half-court offense, but they managed only seven fast-break points to Arizona's 18. ASU shot just 35% (21-for-60) for the game with a lot of those jumpers. ASU was only 7-for-26 from long distance while Arizona was 8-for-21.
They said it
“I thought Arizona played a really good basketball game. After watching them all year and playing against them now, twice, I would say in my nine years here is most likely the best Arizona team that I faced. So they're a really good team. They deserve the credit for outplaying us in this game.” — ASU coach Bobby Hurley
"We knew it was going to be a hard game. I’m happy we got off to a good start. I knew they were going to respond in the second half, but you’re always thinking that as a coach. I was just hoping we could come out and hit first in the second half and maybe extend our lead a little bit and really test them. It didn’t happen that way and I thought our guys did an incredible job of kind of managing a little bit of chaos in that second half." —Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd
"The quality of a performance we put out last time was not even our average. It was a bad day all around. They kind of came out the same way they did last time but it's about how you respond to runs and we wanted to win. We actually wanted to win more today than we did that day so that's why we put out a better effort." —ASU guard Adam Miller
Side notes
Among those in attendance at the game were Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray and former Arizona basketball standout Mike Bibby.
ASU has had football players take part in promotional festivities during games this season as part of NIL deals. Quarterback Trenton Bourget was among those, throwing out t-shirts to the crowd at a time-out. Coach Kenny Dillingham was also on hand.
ASU used its 11th lineup of the season with normal starters Frankie Collins, Jose Perez, Alonzo Gaffney and Jamiya Neal joined by Bobby Hurley, son of the head coach. It was the last home game so it was a senior day thing as Perez, Gaffney and injured Zane Meeks were honored pre-game. Hurley is just a junior but already has his degree and has decided not to play next year, so he was honored with the seniors.
Next up
The Sun Devils close out the regular season with a road trip to Los Angeles. They will play USC at the Galen Center at 9 p.m. Thursday and then go to Pauley Pavilion for a 9 p.m. game on Saturday. Both will air on FS1.
The game against UCLA will be the last ever regular-season game in the Pac-12 era. Other conference games will be held that day but the ASU-UCLA game is the last to tip off.
ASU split games against those teams in Tempe, defeating USC 82-67 but losing to UCLA 68-66.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No. 6 Arizona pushes past ASU basketball late, wins by 18 in Tempe
