Despite playing a neck-and-neck contest against its interstate rival, Saturday afternoon's defeat for Arizona State (12-9, 3-7 Big 12) was a game on a knife edge. While a glance at the box score would suggest ASU played an even better game than Arizona (15-6, 9-1), the stats dictated by the battle inside display a new picture. In the 81-72 loss, ASU proved equally matched on the perimeter, but execution inside made all the difference.

Prior to Saturday, the Wildcat's identity on the glass was well documented. With the second-best combined rebounds per game in the Big 12 (39.9), they dominated on both fronts by grabbing 52 rebounds, including 18 on the offensive end, compared to just 38 from the Sun Devils.

Arizona utilizes a flurry of athletic guards and forwards to clean the glass effectively. The team shares the workload on both ends, as seven of the nine players featured on Saturday had four rebounds or more, with freshman forward Carter Bryant leading the way with 10 rebounds.

With 18 offensive rebounds, the Wildcats produced 14 second-chance points. Although the gap between their total and the Sun Devils was just six, the timeliness of the rebounding was critical to Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd’s side taking a commanding advantage, as 10 offensive rebounds came in the second half to total 12 second-chance points.

Rebounding in Tempe has proven a mixed bag, as the maroon and gold have won the battle on the boards in just eight of 21 games in the 2024-25 season. Coming on top on the glass is customarily a sign of good things for ASU, as it boasts a 7-1 record in those eight contests.

Although the Sun Devils have size down low through five-star freshman forward Jayden Quaintnace, 7-foot junior Shawn Phillips Jr., and senior forward Basheer Jihad, the nuances that impact winning battles on the low block amongst the trees are a work in progress compared to other programs.

During the post-game press conference, ASU head coach Bobby Hurley stood up out of his chair to eagerly describe a sealing technique used by Arizona forward, redshirt sophomore Henri Veesaar, where the 7-footer boxed out Quaintance or Phillips Jr to deny them a path to the basket when attempting to block shots at the rim.

“I have to do a better job of teaching my post players how to dislodge a player and just move him as far under the basket as possible as your player drives to the basket,” Hurley said. “It must be nice to have someone pave the road for you like that. where you literally just wipe out a defender and take him out of any type of help defense.

“It's basically a moving screen that's allowed, and it's been happening way too often; that is part of the areas on that we can't get an offensive rebound, and we can't challenge a layup in the paint.”

Using this legal technique, Wildcat guards Caleb Love, a fifth-year student, and Jaden Bradley, a junior, combined for 41 points. In basketball circles, this move is also known as a ‘Gortat Screen.’ Nicknamed the Polish Hammer, Marcin Gortat played 12 seasons in the NBA, most notably for the Washington Wizards. He pioneered this move, which Hurley described as having become a staple for bigs who struggle athletically.

European natives often use subtle techniques allowed by the rulebook to gain advantages. In the Real Madrid product, maximizing the details gave the Wildcats a minor advantage, yet just enough to make all the difference.

Quaintance had his moment against Veesaar. However, with seven minutes and 40 seconds to play, the 17-year-old used a burst of speed to beat the Estonian. This was preceded by a ferocious dunk that ignited Desert Financial Arena. Quaintance added a picture-perfect slam to his collection, showing off his incredible athletic ability.

Veesaar didn’t accept his faith sitting down, however. He finished the game with 11 points and five offensive rebounds from the bench, aiding Arizona in maintaining a steady advantage by keeping possessions alive to second and third chances. He dominated the final stretch of play with two showtime slams of his own, erupting the well-traveled flock of Arizona fans in the process.

“Their bigs started ducking in, so it started to get challenging,” Miller said. Veesaar is a monster down there because we're playing longer possessions that's shooting us in the foot. We got to close out the play, and then that gives us a chance to go down and score.”

Veesaars' dominating stretch to close out the game highlighted a worrisome disparity of points in the paint: The Wildcats produced 32 compared to the Sun Devils' 14. Miller feels the guards often settled for outside shots when needing to find the team's interior players. Notably, Phillips Jr. had just one shot in 14 minutes of action.

“Man, we need him, and we should have gotten him the ball more in the second half,” Miller said. “We should have thrown the ball in the post more in the second half. We kept it on the perimeter too much. I think that if that first option is not there, we need to go to something else.

“Because he's down there banging, and people look, maybe he might slap the chair here and there, but he's down there wrestling, and he's a big body. He gets tired quickly, so we have to give him the ball more.”

For ASU, stringing together a cohesive 40 minutes of basketball on all fronts has become a constant riff in the campaign. At halftime, the rebounding disparity was just six, and the offensive rebounding difference was two. With just 2 second-chance points to boot, as well. For significant points in the game, the maroon and gold avoided detrimental lapses against its rival; however, in the final moments of the game, when the gears tightened, it was the Wildcats who relied on their strength to come out with a victory.

“Good teams found a way to win, bad teams found a way to lose, winning solves everything,” senior guard Adam Miller said. “We're doing ourselves a disservice to go out there and not finish out games, especially games when we've had the momentum for most of the games.”

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