Despite the momentum Arizona State carried into Saturday night’s game, the Sun Devils struggled to keep up with the Southern California Trojans in the first half. However, it wasn’t the fact that ASU trailed for double digits for much of those final six minutes of the frame that bothered coach Bobby Hurley, especially since they went on a 6-3 run in the final two minutes to only trail 40-32 at the break.

Rather, it was the fact that his guys passed up the chance to take the final shot of the half, as he explained how finishing first halves well has been a key element to the team’s current hot streak of three straight wins, and victories in five of their last six after tonight’s wild 66-64 win.

“I feel like one thing we’ve done extremely well is late-half situations,” Hurley said. “As you look at your season, the last minute of the (first half of the) Arizona game and how we played that put us in a position to win, and that has changed our season.

“We didn’t recognize that we should’ve taken the last shot of the half, and you never want to—unless it’s a wide-open layup, you want to wait and use clock, and then take the last shot so your opponent doesn’t have another crack at it.”

As has become increasingly evident throughout Pac-12 play, the Sun Devils success or failure from game-to-game essentially rides on their top trio of guards; junior Remy Martin, junior Alonzo Verge Jr. and senior Rob Edwards.

This game became a microcosm of just that. Verge’s 13 first-half points were one of few positives, as Martin had six on 2-for-8 shooting (1-for-4 on threes), while Edwards had a single point and missed all five of his field goals, four of which were threes.

“Coach Hurley, he always has confidence in us, he knows what we’re capable of doing,” Verge said. “He just wanted to get us out of that slump. He knew that we had to rebound better, and stick defense and make them turn over the ball and pressure them more because they didn’t like pressure. That’s what we did in the second half, and we made them turn over the ball a lot.”

To Verge’s point, 16 of USC’s 24 turnovers came in the second half. ASU only turned it over 16 times all game.

To go back to the guard trio, the second half became practically a reversal of the first. Martin bounced back with 16 points, including three key free throws that erased a three-point deficit with 2:15 to play.

Not to mention the wild game-winner that finally fell with 16 seconds to go after bouncing around the rim, putting him at a team-high 22 points on the night (7-for-18 field goals, 2-for-7 threes, 6-for-6 free throws, plus five rebounds, three assists, two steals), also tying senior USC guard Jonah Mathews for the game-high.

As for Edwards, he shot 50 percent from three (3-for-6) in the second half, scoring 10 points in the frame to finish with 11 (3-for-13 field goals, 3-for-10 threes, 2-for-4 free throws) on the game. This balanced out a tough finish for Verge, who shot 0-for-5 from the field and only scored three points in the final 20 minutes, but finished with 16 points (5-for-13 field goals, 2-for-3 threes, 4-for-5 free throws) because of his first 20.

“It was super frustrating, I felt super bad,” Edwards said of his shooting inconsistencies. “I didn’t ever think the game was over, but I felt like we could’ve put it in the bag.

“They had some guys that got hot. Mathews got hot, and then (senior forward Nick) Rakocevic at the end of the game (on defense), he got hot. We just had to stop them and execute on offense.”

Certainly, his and Martin’s ability to turn things around in the second half—after Verge’s first-half showing is what kept the team only down single-digits at halftime in the first place—were of keen importance. In fact, the duo made nine of ASU’s 10 field goals in the final half, scoring 26 of their 34 points.

The rest of the team shot 1-for-14, with the only made field goal being a layup by senior forward Mikey Mitchell off a great assist by Martin, his only one of the second half.

That being said, a fifth consecutive game of ASU’s guard trio all scoring in double figures was merely a part of the story in this latest comeback effort. A newfound tenacity and fire on defense made all the difference, with the Sun Devils holding USC to 24 second-half points after they dropped 40 in the first half.

“Our defense was pretty rock solid,” Hurley said. “We had that one stretch in the second half where we didn’t rebound well, but outside of that to shoot 31% and to win against a team like this is a great win for us.

“It started with Teashon, and Mickey and Khalid and then from there the guards were scrambling. We turned them over some in the first half but it was really a problem in the second half and we knew we had to gain the momentum and be the aggressor in the game and that helped us.”

Specifically, Martin made sure to shout out sophomore forward Taeshon Cherry and freshman guard Jaelen House for their defensive efforts off the bench.

“Jaelen House; he comes in and he gives us energy every time he gets on the floor,” Martin said. “I think that helps us a lot. Taeshon, somebody who’s not hitting shots on the offensive end and a lot of people would fold, a lot of people would just carry that over to the defensive end, and he’s been doing a great job of just playing defense and not worrying about the offensive end.

“It’s a collective group, but those two guys are the guys that come in and put in work, and Jaelen House always brings energy, does the stuff that we need him to do. Those little things that he does make a big impact on the game.”

Other than the turnovers, this ramped up defense was evident in looking at USC’s regular top scorers, especially when comparing halves. For the team’s leading scorer, freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu, the whole night proved challenging as he only took three shots, scoring five points (well below his 17 point-per-game average).

But for Mathews, he surpassed his scoring totals from each of his past five games with 17 points in the first half alone, then set a new season-high with 5 points early in the second half.

However, he would get shut out for the remaining 13:30 of the contest. Senior forward Nick Rakocevic, the team’s third-leading scorer behind those two, got shut out for the entire second half after scoring eight points on 4-for-6 shooting in the first.

This kind of help from ASU’s frontcourt, of course, led by junior forward Romello White (seven points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, three steals), is why the team has been able to step up its ability to win since the turn of the month.

The Sun Devils have always had the potential on their roster to be a dangerous team to anyone they play. But at this point, the results are speaking for themselves.

ASU returns to action Thursday night when they visit the Stanford Cardinal (16-7, 5-5 Pac-12) at 9 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.