Edwards and Martin lead ASU over Utah

Entering a matchup against Utah the stakes felt unusually high for a game that took place just five games into conference play.

Coming off a two-game losing the Sun Devils desirability needed to find their groove following losses to Arizona and Colorado.

Behind the duo of Rob Edwards and Remy Martin, Arizona State did just that in an 83-64 victory over Utah (10-7, 1-4) to push them to 11-7 on the year and 2-3 in conference play.

The tense matchup featured a total of four technical fouls throughout the contest and even the ejection of Utes head coach Larry Krystkowiak.

As the game drew to a close, ASU head coach Bobby Hurley (who earned one of the four technical fouls) admitted he felt a sense of relief.

“It was a good feeling in the locker room,” Hurley admitted. “Good vibe to take a deep breath and just watch us make some plays and multiple guys play well on the offensive end of the floor.”

Of the players who played well on the offensive side of the ball, it was Martin and Edwards that led the way with 44 combined points with 20 and 24 respectively.

Edwards was the more efficient of the duo as he hit 6 of his 7 shot attempts including going 5 of 6 from beyond the arc.

The performance was one that has not been common for the senior guard this season as he came into the matchup averaging 9 points per game.

Despite his struggles throughout the year, Edwards' confidence and work ethic is one that had him confident a breakout game was just around the corner.

“I just stayed in the gym, stayed confident,” Edwards said. “Came to practice every day, focused.”

The other half of the dynamic scoring duo in Martin was one that took a half to get going but was able to come up clutch in the second half for the Sun Devils.

Martin scored 6 points in the first half hitting only 3 of his 10 shot attempts before going off for 14 in the second.

A change that he attributed to being patient and being able to let the game come to him rather than trying to force the issue.

“I think first half I was trying to find it a little bit individually myself,” Martin expressed. “I wasn’t hitting my mid-range shots that I usually make. In the second half I just kind of let it come to me a little bit.”

The slow start in the first half was one affected not only Martin but the entire Sun Devil team in the first half.

Despite holding Utah to 23 first-half points on 28% shooting, ASU took just a six-point lead heading into the break due to offensive struggles of their own.

The struggles were quickly washed away as a 10-2 run to open the second half of play by the Sun Devils gave them a 39-25 lead in the opening minutes of half two.

The opening run was one that would be able to give Arizona State breathing room in the second half in order to be able to begin to pull away.

Utah was able to cut into the double-digit deficit on two occasions getting the lead down to 41-36 after a 6-0 run and to 59-51 later in the quarter.

The Sun Devils used a timely barrage of runs of their own to terminate any hopes Utah had at coming back in the game as they pulled away in the end.

A large part of the success by Arizona State came by holding Pac-12 leading scorer Timmy Allen (19.9 points per game) to a slow start.

Allen began the game hitting just 1 of his first 8 shot attempts before finally finding his groove in the second half and finishing with a team-high 18 points on the night.

“We wanted to make sure that he couldn’t get any open looks at the basket,” Martin admitted. “Everything was tough for him whether, at the free throw line, we just wanted to make him see many bodies.”

The Sun Devils were able to gain contributions from a total of 9 players on the scoreboard including Taeshon Cherry who finished with 11 points and two made threes on the night.

Other key contributions included key minutes from Jaelen Graham and Alonzo Verge who were able to assist a bench that was without freshman Jaelen House due to a concussion.

For Martin, it was his sixth straight 20-point game as he has taken the role of primary scorer for Arizona State due to offensive struggles.

Even after his sixth straight 20-point performance, an all-around team effort and victory was something that point guard Remy Martin treasured more than his final amount of points on the box score.

“At the end of the day, none of that means anything to me,” Martin said of his point totals. “We (Martin and Edwards) both came from winning teams, and whether I scored 14, 2 or 20, if we don’t win it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t matter.”

The sense of winning being the only thing that matters is one that echoed several times throughout his postgame comments by Martin.

This comes on the heels of a matchup against in-state rival Arizona facing the Sun Devils in the next week after losing the opening matchup.

The key heading into that matchup? Not getting caught up in the team’s performance against Utah and being able to move on the next according to Martin.

“We played pretty good basketball out there today, but we’re not satisfied,” Martin said. “We (Martin and Edwards) both come from last year’s team and this is a good win for other guys and for us. Our job is to make sure that we are still hungry and this is not good enough for Arizona State now.”