LAWRENCE, Kan. – Like the rest of his team, Arizona State guard Kodi Justice had a rough start to Sunday afternoon’s game.

As the No. 16 Sun Devils stumbled to an early 15-2 deficit to No. 2 Kansas, Justice missed his first 6 shots, including an air-ball that drew taunts from the capacity 16,300-person crowd at Allen Fieldhouse.

Just minutes into the game, it looked like Kansas was primed for a blowout.

But, Justice kept firing from the field. His team kept chipping away at the KU lead too.

When the senior finally got a shot to fall, a 3-pointer with 17:00 left in the game, it sparked a stunning Sun Devil turnaround, the first domino to fall in ASU’s come-from-behind 95-85 upset of the Jayhawks (7-2).

“We knew they were going to make a big run. If we could just sustain that and fight back, which is what we did, we knew we had a great chance to win,” Justice said.

Starting with the Justice make, ASU (9-0) went on an extended 29-9 run – including 15 unanswered points during one stretch – that turned an 8-point deficit into a 14-point lead with 9:45 to play. ASU’s win was never in real jeopardy again.

“It’s a blur to me right now,” coach Bobby Hurley said post-game, donning the maroon “Guard U” shirt the Sun Devils have started wearing in recent days.

Senior Tra Holder caught fire down the stretch, scoring 14 points in the second half and a team-high 29 total in game. Another senior, Shannon Evans II, was lethal behind the arc, cashing in 5 shots from deep and finishing with 22 points. Freshman Remy Martin was dynamic on both ends of the floor, swiping 5 steals and scoring 21 points of his own.

“I just think in general the guys feed off each other and they give each other confidence because they are really good,” coach Bobby Hurley said. “Any number of those guys could be the difference maker on any given night.”

If there was any doubt to the validity of the Sun Devils’ climbing position in the national polls, it was forgotten as they dropped 58 second-half points to secure their most impressive – and important – victory under coach Bobby Hurley.

“No one really wins here,” Hurley said of Kansas’ historic home court. “When you come in here, most of the time, you’re not leaving real happy.”

Early, ASU seemed headed down that path, before quelling Kansas’ initial barrage of buckets. The Sun Devils found a rhythm and started trading scores with the Jayhawks, never letting KU lead by more than 8 the rest of the half, and finding themselves in only 40-37 hole at the break.

“The game slowed down for us,” Holder said. “At first it was really rapid, the crowd got into it. We were telling each other pick spots that we can find each other and attack the defense.”

No one got more attention from the stands than Justice, who suffered through targeted chants of “Air Ball!” every time he got a touch. He ignored them.

“I knew we were going to make plays, we were going to make shots,” Justice said, finishing the game with 7 points and 9 rebounds. “Being down 3 [even though] we weren’t shooting the ball well at halftime, I knew we had a great chance.”

The Sun Devils went small as they stormed back. Hurley kept each of Holder, Evans, Martin, Justice, and White on the floor for at least 32 minutes, trusting his best players to lock down his team’s biggest win of the year.

“I don’t worry about them making poor decisions,” Hurley said. “I’m just used to them making the right play and taking care of it. When you have that many guards on the floor, the thing you’re most concerned about is rebounding and protecting the rim.”

While Kansas forward Udoka Azubuike provided a spark inside against ASU’s undersized lineup (he had 13 points and 3 alley-oop dunks), the Jayhawks talented guards couldn’t connect often enough from deep.

Despite productive performances from the KU’s backcourt quartet of Lagerald Vick (25 points), Devonte’ Graham (19 points), Svi Mykhailiuk (14 points) and Malik Newman (13 points), the Jayhawks shot just 37 percent (14-38) from behind the arc; ASU meanwhile made half (14-28) of their 3-point tries.

“I trust these guys,” Hurley said of his own foursome of guards. “They really play for each other, they’re fearless. They really stepped up to the challenge against a great perimeter that Kansas has and a high scoring team.”

Kansas coach Bill Self’s team had no answer.

“They ran some actions to create switches,” Self said. “They were better with the ball than we were.”

Few Sun Devils teams in recent memory have accomplished so much (a 9-game winning streak; wins over national powerhouses Xavier and Kansas; gaining more and more national attention with each victory) in such little time. Yet they paid no attention to what a moment like Sunday might lead to after the game.

Instead, ASU’s seniors especially – a group that has never taken the program to the NCAA tournament – are letting the school’s best start since 1974-75 start sink-in first.

“When you start thinking about March and things like that, you lose times like this,” Evans said.

The Sun Devils have been planning on a statement like this since the preseason, aware of the talent they have on this year’s roster. Through the season’s first month, they’ve executed perfectly. Not even Allen Fieldhouse, a building Self had lost just 10 games in previously, was too big of a stage.

“We saw the stats. Winning here, it’s one of the hardest places to win in the country,” Justice said. “It’s definitely a great feeling, but I would never say you are surprising yourself because you put in so much work in the offseason and you have confidence in yourself and your ability as a team to get a win anywhere you go.”

After the game, Self called this year’s Jayhawks squad the “softest team Kansas has had since I’ve been here.”

Maybe. But on Sunday, the story wasn’t about what Kansas lacks.

It was that ASU is turning a corner, morphing from a dormant Pac-12 program to a team that will likely be ranked in the top-10 of the country next week.

“We can defeat teams with our offense some because we just keep scoring and teams will say ‘are these guys ever going to miss a shot out here?’” Hurley said. “They’re just complete players, all of these guys.”