It was a tale of two halves at the Galen Center in Los Angeles as Arizona State (7-10, 4-7 Pac-12) fell to No. 17 USC (18-3, 12-2 Pac-12) on Wednesday night by a score of 89-71.
Led by senior guard Remy Martin, Arizona State went back-and-forth with the Trojans in a first-half track meet as each side sprinted across the Trojan hardwood, hitting bucket after bucket.
In an offense that hasn’t been able to establish a consistent half-court approach and rhythm, the Sun Devils opted for their fast-paced transitional style of play in order to create other scoring opportunities through ball movement.
Head coach Bobby Hurley’s strategy worked as transitional opportunities gave way to free-flowing offense for the majority of the first half. By creating open shots from the field, ASU also avoided the prospect of USC’s array of talented shot blockers negating short-range attempts at the cup.
“We know we had to get out in transition and not let (USC) get their defense set,” senior forward Kimani Lawrence explained. “They have a lot of shot blockers, so we decided to get them off of their feet, get to the rim and then spray the ball around – pass, take shots and make shots.”
Across the first 20 minutes, the Sun Devils did make their shots – resulting in one of the most productive halves for Bobby Hurley’s squad this year as ASU shot 56.3 percent from the field.
“I thought we handled ourselves well; I told the guys at halftime (the first half) was not what I envisioned based on how well (USC) defends,” Hurley said. “You look at the box score, and you have 44 points, and they scored a bunch too, but it was a clean game and a well-played game for the first 20 minutes.”
Despite trailing by two at the halftime break, ASU’s fortunes would turn for the worse, as USC’s supercharged scorers emerged, and Arizona State couldn’t seem to keep up. The Trojans’ Mobley brothers, who combined for 27 points and 20 rebounds on Jan. 9 in Tempe, had their way with the Sun Devils on Wednesday, racking up 42 of USC’s 89 points and 21 of 36 rebounds on the night.
Evan and Isaiah, who stand at 7-foot and 6-foot-10 respectively, were like tall trees among the ASU players in the frontcourt and dominated the paint, contributing to the 44 total points in the restricted area scored by USC.
Adding to the Sun Devil dilemma was the absence of freshmen Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley due to injury. Sophomore forward Jalen Graham found himself in early foul trouble, and junior forward Chris Osten was limited to only several minutes as he recovers from an ankle injury – leaving Lawrence and sophomore John Olmsted to do the heavy lifting in the ASU frontcourt.
Outmanned and outgunned, the Sun Devils sputtered in the second half, scoring 27 points to USC’s 43, while shooting just 32 percent from the field.
On the other hand, the Trojans let the three-ball fly, finishing with an 11-20 mark from range, a drastic difference from the Jan. 9 matchup in which they only made 3 of 22 attempts from three. Redshirt senior guard Tahj Eaddy went 4-6 from range en route to scoring 18 points, third-most behind the Mobley brothers.
“Any time you have a player of (Evan) Mobley’s caliber, everyone’s shot attempts get better and better,” Hurley explained. “When you have a guy like that or even Isaiah Mobley that they can throw the ball into and they have to demand the attention that we needed to give them; it’s going to improve the quality of the shots… (USC has) all these guys that (were) making shots, so I don’t know the type of team that’s going to really have a chance to beat USC that I’ve seen in our league.”
The Sun Devils dug themselves a seven-point hole at the beginning of the second half, and while they did manage to close that gap and keep the game close, the size and skill of the Trojans proved to be too much to handle across the stretch.
“Some regrets for the game were maybe not starting a little better in the second half, we had possession, did a good job in the last three minutes (of the first half) to cut it to two,” Hurley mentioned. “We didn’t start the second half well and got down seven and started chasing. We had aa chance to maybe take the lead or keep it at a close margin.”
ASU rode the performance of two seniors: Martin, who notched his third thirty-point performance of the season, while also distributing three assists and two rebounds, and Lawrence, who followed up with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.
For the Sun Devils, Pac-12 tournament hopes are still in their grasp, but first on the agenda must be the roster's health. Wednesday night’s matchup was the fifth game this season the Sun Devils have been missing four or more players.
Along with Bagley and Christopher, who are going to be re-evaluated ahead of Saturday’s contest against UCLA, ASU was also missing freshman forward Pavlo Dziuba (COVID protocols) and junior forward Taeshon Cherry (personal reasons).
In order to sneak into the postseason, Arizona State is desperate to get the full roster back in business for the remainder of the schedule, but regardless of whom Hurley has available, the tough, scrappy Sun Devil coach will fight until the very end.
“It would be nice if we did get healthy; there are no guarantees on that,” Hurley explained. “We will see what the rest of the week looks like, but we just need to try to lock in on each opportunity. I think we did tonight outside the first two or three minutes of the second half…we just need to keep competing, keep battling, and we will see what happens on each night.”
