How do you beat a team that punches back to every blow you throw? Simple, don’t give them a chance to dish it back. Despite every spark produced by the Sun Devils being put out by the Cardinal throughout the game, Arizona State (7-5, 1-0 Pac-12) pulled a rabbit out of its hat on the farm, erasing a 14-point deficit to steal a win over Stanford (5-6, 0-1) in the Pac-12 opener.
ASU showed immense character in its second-half comeback
Conference season is far different than the traditional non-con. Coaches know each other better, the games are more physical, and a lot of logic gets thrown out the window. Coming into the Pac-12 opener, Arizona State had lost three games in a row, two of which saw sizable leads get squandered. Usually not the kind of momentum you want to carry into league play; Arizona State played 40 minutes of desperate basketball. For a while, though, it looked like it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough.
After embarking on an 8-2 run out of the gate, Stanford put out nearly every fire by the Arizona State offense as they tried to trim the deficit. Thunderous dunks for ASU were one-upped literally by threes on the other end, as Jared Bynum and Kanaan Carlyle both buried multiple triples. When ASU adjusted on the perimeter, Maxime Raynaud and Bryan Angel made them pay down low. Even so, the Sun Devils made enough shots to stay within reach, trailing by anywhere from six to ten points for much of the second half. As it would turn out, that would be Sparky’s springboard to steal it.
After a Bynum layup put Stanford ahead 69-59 with 5:04 to play, the Sun Devils would pour in nine unanswered points to cut a nearly insurmountable lead to one in just two minutes. Trading baskets with the Cardinal down the stretch, Arizona State slowed the pace down against a quick and agile Stanford team to possess the ball for over 40 seconds with the score knotted at 73. After causing a loose ball to go to ASU, Collins followed up the big defensive play with a turnaround fadeaway to give ASU its first lead of the night with 30 seconds on the clock.
For all the hustle plays and leadership moments, none were bigger than Jamiya Neal’s effort in the final seconds. Having undergone one of his worst offensive nights of the season, shooting just 3-11 from the field, Neal remained on the floor as Stanford looked to force overtime and made a clean yet emphatic rejection on Michael Jones’s three-pointer, sending the ball away as time expired on the victory.
If there’s been a staple of Arizona State basketball under Bobby Hurley, it’s been effort, and Friday was no exception as the Sun Devils pulled out a game few would’ve still been all in for when down double digits with five minutes to play.
Alonzo Gaffney and Kamari Lands finally stepped up when they were needed most
To their credit, Alonzo Gaffney and Kamari Lands haven’t found themselves in the roles they expected to for much of this season. Moving up from his role on last year’s squad, Alonzo Gaffney was highly praised in the preseason for his leap on the offensive end, something that he hasn’t been able to show in-game action with the absence of Shawn Phillips. With Phillips returning and Gaffney less tied down on defense in the paint, the 6’9” forward played a crucial part in ASU’s offensive show in a 48-point second half. Despite inefficient shooting numbers from three, Gaffney’s 12 points on 5-10 shooting proved vital in keeping ASU in the game early on, not to mention his contributions on the defensive end of the floor, with his length disrupting the Stanford offense. Having struggled mightily in ASU’s last three losses, Gaffney’s 180-degree turn was one of the key components of Hurley’s 42nd halftime comeback as Sun Devil head coach.
Unlike Gaffney, much of Sun Devil nation didn’t know what they were getting from Kamari Lands. Having transferred from a Louisville team at rock bottom, Lands started hot with three double-digit scoring performances to open the campaign but hadn’t returned to that plateau as ASU stumbled since. With the late addition of Jose Perez and the midseason return of Adam Miller, Lands’s offensive role diminished greatly, having not had a single game of a 50 percent or better mark from the floor. When most written off, Lands came off the bench in Palo Alto and delivered a team-high (with Miller) 13 points on an efficient 4-8 performance from the field, including a surprising 3-5 mark from downtown. Primarily serving as a defensive anchor since the start of the season, Lands’s offensive contributions came in light of down nights from Jamiya Neal and Jose Perez, picking up just enough of the slack offensively to make the difference.
In his return from injury, Shawn Phillips made an impact in the paint
Ever since Shawn Phillips limped off the floor in the third game of the season against UMass-Lowell, ASU has been ripped to shreds in the paint. Opposing teams have fed their bigs or let their guards loose to the rim, and it paid dividends as ASU staggered through the non-con slate, surrendering upwards of 70 points in half their games without Phillips.
On a minutes’ restriction, Phillips returned to action on Friday, and while he only played 11 minutes, he played a key role in paint presence on both ends. In a one-possession final, Phillips’s six points ended up being part of the difference, converting on all three of his attempts at the rim. Four of his six points came in a crucial stretch of the second half, where ASU traded baskets with Stanford between the 12 and 16-minute marks to keep the Sun Devils within striking distance amid hot shooting streaks from the Cardinal.
Phillips’s 7-foot frame naturally gave ASU a much-needed boost on the glass, and while the Cardinal outrebounded the Sun Devils by nine, and Phillips only managed one board, his mere presence down low discouraged Stanford from trying to get downhill. With two blocks and a handful of contested looks, Phillips’s contributions were a sight for sore eyes for ASU on Friday.
Even with Phillips’s return, ASU still struggled inside
There’s only so much a man can do in 11 minutes on the floor. And while the frame of Shawn Phillips helped make things look better down low, ASU’s paint woes didn’t subside against Stanford.
The Sun Devils’ issues on both ends of the painted floor have been well-documented this season. ASU entered Friday as the tenth-worst team by offensive rebounding percentage on KenPom and the eighth-worst team in the nation on rebounding margin. Up against all-conference caliber center Maxime Raynaud and lengthy, athletic defenders in Bryan Angel and Spencer Jones, ASU once again couldn’t keep up on the boards, as the Cardinal won the rebounding battle 41-32, including a 9-6 edge on the offensive glass.
As he had throughout much of the last month, Jamiya Neal stepped up to lead the team with six boards, but now at full strength in the frontcourt, ASU shouldn’t have to rely on a guard to carry the load on the glass.
ASU’s diverse scoring approach may be their key to offensive consistency
Bobby Hurley is never one to discourage his players from taking the big shot. The nine-year head coach of Sun Devil basketball has never put a stop sign on the hot hand, and that’s been both beneficial and detrimental to ASU in the past. In their last three losses, it’s mostly been a negative, as aside from a shootout loss to San Diego, ASU had just three players tally double-digits in the points category combined against TCU and Northwestern. In both of those contests, ASU lost substantially while also falling short of 60 points.
On Friday against Stanford, ASU took a different path to the basket. Rather than try to play through a star player or hot hand, the Sun Devils spread the wealth on offense, with four double-digit scorers with an improved field-goal percentage to go along with it. To no surprise, Adam Miller led the way with 12 shots, making five, but less featured players made noise offensively elsewhere. Having been tasked as the team’s primary center through the last month,
Alonzo Gaffney didn’t shy away from spreading the floor, taking seven three-pointers while cashing two. Kamari Lands added 13 of his own on 4-8 shooting, Frankie Collins added another 12, and even Jamiya Neal had nine despite a rough shooting night. In the end, six different players took at least seven shots, and it proved to be a recipe for some post-holiday home-cooking in ASU’s win.
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