LOS ANGELES - A calm Zylan Cheatham looked to his right. He stopped and pointed his feet toward the swarms of UCLA students yelling at him late in Thursday night’s game, crafting a smile from their anger and shrugging as he paced to his position.

Finally.

Finally, there was no drama. No need for heroics. No late worry. ASU could let off a few laughs in the last minute of a game and not need to fret over possibly blowing a lead.

Now, the same was true for the Oregon game on Saturday. But ASU (14-5, 5-2 Pac-12) didn’t need a 19-0 run late in its 84-73 victory over UCLA (10-9, 3-3 Pac-12) at Pauley Pavilion, marking the Devils’ first win in Westwood since 2009.

Instead, Thursday’s victory came on the back of a pair of performances that seemed to dictate the game while slipping through the cracks for some. Remy Martin, playing just 25 miles away from his hometown of Chatsworth, racked up a career-high 11 assists and notched his first double-double. And Cheatham brought down 20 rebounds, the most by a Sun Devil since 1997.

“As a point guard, you have to get your teammates involved. Eight assists at halftime was great, he found more scoring opportunities in the second half,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said of Martin. “(Zylan) with 20 rebounds, you don’t see that too often.”

Screams and applause rained down on Martin as he walked off the court. He looked up, towards the lower bowl of Pauley Pavilion, taking in his swarm of fans, which seemed to fill up half a section.

Per usual, the humble point guard tried to downplay his performance in the wake of so many supporters. No amount of voices or family present was going to steer him away from his team-first mantra.

“It was a great game, my family came out to support me,” Martin said. “We got the win, that’s all that matters.”

But his career night turned to validation.

After ASU lost its three seniors last year, an often-unhealthy Martin has been thrust into a role that was, in no way defined. It wasn’t clear if Martin was going to be the Devils’ go-to scorer or their most lethal distributor.

Some nights he would take 20 shots. Other nights, he would attempt just two shots but dish out nine dimes. There was an imbalance.

Cheatham noted that he has spoken to the 6-foot, 170-pound guard of finding the right fit between his scoring and passing, offering advice to an open mind in Martin who knew the talk came from a place of respect.

“The game is slowing down for him,” Cheatham said of Martin. “He’s learning time to score, situations and he’s taking the game one possession at a time. And when he does that, he’s tough to deal with.”

Oh, and he can dunk too.

The clock was ticking down to its final minutes in what was, already at the time, a surefire ASU win. Cheatham looked around the half-empty arena and found his dad, who was trying to get his son’s attention while pointing to the scoreboard.

“He was like, ‘One more,” Cheatham said his dad told him. “And I looked up and I’m like I have 19 boards. I wasn’t too worried about it.”

The Phoenix native tracked down his 20th rebound shortly after, finishing the game one-point shy of a 20-rebound, 10-point double-double.

Cheatham has turned into, unquestionably, ASU’s most impactful leader, the guy that seems to bring everything together for the Sun Devils on a given night. He’s the Renaissance Man of ASU basketball, asked to be a scorer some nights, a facilitator on others and sometimes Hurley and Co. just need him to grab some tough rebounds.

“It’s a testament to my coaching staff allowing me to flourish,” Cheatham said. “Hurley is the type of guy who you just want to do more for. I felt like I’ve been rebounding the ball well this season but that’s something that we needed today and Hurley held me accountable with that. That’s what he wanted me to do.”

He may be asked to do it some more. The 20-rebound performance jolts Cheatham to No. 1 in the Pac-12 with an average of 10.2 rebounds a game.

“He’s a glue guy,” Martin said. “He just does everything. I wish he could have gotten 10 (points) and 20 (rebounds) but that’s just how the game goes.”

***

Make no mistake about it, Thursday was a sloppy game. Between both teams there were 32 turnovers, 17 missed free throws and enough constant stoppages to produce a lifetime of Pac-12 jokes on Twitter.

With all that, it’s tough to remember that ASU was down 11-0 to start the game.

“Honestly, I really don’t even remember being down 11,” sophomore forward Kimani Lawrence said.

OK, so maybe that doesn’t matter. What does is what the performances of Martin and Cheatham represent: an ASU team that is starting to define roles.

Hurley has talked all season about learning this team and in a sense, they needed to learn how they fit in the offense. Seven games into the Pac-12 season, that vision is starting to take more of a defined shape and, no matter the sloppiness, producing positive results for ASU.

“Whatever we put up next is probably going to go in and it just makes everyone play a little bit harder,” Lawrence said. “It makes it easier to play and the offense flows way smoother.”