Even after a 6-0 start where his team scored at least 90 points in each win, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley had questions.
“I was a little concerned about our defense,” he said. “It’s just not realistic that you’re going to score that many points every night, and what if you don’t have your A game shooting the ball or your guards aren’t finishing at the level we did in other games? Can you find a way to win and get through a game?”
Well, on Saturday, his 20th-ranked Sun Devils gave him answers in a 75-57 victory over San Francisco at Wells Fargo Arena. Hurley has talked a lot about defense costing his team games last season, but a good effort on that end of the floor helped give the program its first 7-0 start since the 1980-81 season.
After conceding a 3-pointer for the game’s first points, the Sun Devils scored the next nine. It eventually took San Francisco about 14 minutes to score 10 points. In the middle, there was a 16-0 run.
“To have them have to chase us the rest of the game, you just feel pretty good about that,” Hurley said.
Especially because the Sun Devils couldn’t seem to find an offensive rhythm for most of the game. And, for context, Hurley made sure to say that 75 points was still a pretty good offensive night. But it wasn’t anything like dropping 102 on No. 15 Xavier like his team did last week.
The Sun Devils shot 46 percent from the floor but went just 4-13 from deep on Saturday. They turned it over 14 times. Five players scored in double-digits, a show of balance, but none exploded for a big scoring night.
A game removed from scoring a career-high 40 points, senior guard Tra Holder had 15 against San Francisco but was 3-10 shooting. He used eight free throws to get there. Senior guard Shannon Evans II added 14 on a 4-for-12 clip. Hurley said the Dons probably guarded his backcourt better than any of ASU’s other opponents this season.
“When you play at this level, you’re not always going to play your cleanest or your best game on offense and you got to be able to rely on the energy you play with on both ends of the floor.”
That’s just what the Sun Devils did. They forced 14 turnovers and scored 22 points off of them. They also held the Dons to 29 percent shooting and 28 percent 3-point range.
The game was choppy. There were a combined 50 free throws, 36 of which were taken by the Sun Devils, a nice boost when shots from the floor weren’t falling. ASU, however, missed 11 of those.
The Dons shot also shot 40 3-pointers and Hurley said the long rebounds on some of those stunted his team’s rhythm. Then again, ASU gave up 14 offensive rebounds, the only knock Hurley had on his team.
ASU will most likely score 90 or more points again this season, but Hurley on Saturday cold breathe a sigh of relief in knowing his team could win without that.
“They just gutted it out down there,” Hurley said of his team. “Especially early, I thought we were playing fast, we were using our speed on defense and speeding them up some. And even the open shots that they had early in the game were after they right to work through pressure in the possession.”
Monday marked ASU’s first appearance in Associated Press Top 25 since 2009. And with the win, the Sun Devils will stay there next week, maybe even move up.
“We’ve proven that we belong where we are,” Hurley said.
On Saturday, they added to that by showing they didn’t need to hit a ton of 3-pointers or score a ridiculous amount of points to win. One early run was enough on an off-night because of their defense.
