Nothing can be said to be certain in this world except death, taxes, and a 20-plus point performance from Remy Martin whenever the Sun Devil guard steps on the Haas Pavilion hardwood.
In an arena which the senior floor general for no. 25 Arizona State (3-1, 1-0 Pac-12) can’t seem to get enough of, as he’s averaged 22.6 points across his last three appearances in Berkeley, Martin notched another standout performance on Thursday night in a 70-62 victory over the California Golden Bears (1-3, 0-1).
The preseason All-American led the way for all scorers in the contest, dropping 22 points by way of an 8-for-11 night from the field. Martin also logged four rebounds and five assists. However, the rest of the Sun Devil lineup wasn’t so lucky, as a finicky zone defense from Cal thwarted the ASU offense in a back-and-forth game that never seemed to be too far out of reach for either side.
“I think Remy’s performance shows why he’s one of the best in our league and in the country,” head coach Bobby Hurley said of his senior guard and leader. “In a game that we didn’t have great flow on offense, and we’re not hitting perimeter shots; he carried us through a large part of that game offensively and made big plays down the stretch.”
Martin’s only Sun Devil accomplice in double figures was someone who’s also no stranger to Haas Pavilion, but unlike Martin, it was freshman guard Josh Christopher’s first time actually playing out on the Berkeley hardwood, rather than sitting in the stands just like did 10 years ago when he watched his brother, Patrick, play for the Golden Bears.
ASU’s hotshot freshman guard came out of the gate in aggressive fashion, confidently shooting contested three-pointers that just missed their mark. However, it wasn’t long until Christopher collected himself, scoring 10 points in just under 10 minutes in the first half, before supplementing another four points in the latter half of the contest.
The other piece of ASU’s electric freshman duo, forward Marcus Bagley, who scored 21 points against Houston Baptist on Sunday, had a much more tumultuous night on Thursday, as the young forward only managed to muster five points on 2-for-9 shooting, although pacing his team with seven rebounds before being helped off the floor late in the second half with a lower-left leg injury.
“It was scary; your heart stops. You’re thinking the worst, and he’s going to get evaluated. (The trainers) felt pretty good that it wasn’t the worst-case scenario, but we are going to check everything and make sure when we get back to Arizona,” Hurley noted.
“The doctors on hand felt at the time pretty good about it not being a catastrophic type of injury. We’ll just have our fingers crossed until we are able to get back and get all the workups done.”
While the Sun Devil offense may have faltered, the team’s defensive effort proved to be much more successful down the stretch. The only outlier was Cal’s Matt Bradley, who scored 20 points in battles with Martin and Christopher. ASU focused on taking away Bradley (1-9 from beyond the arc) and the Golden Bears’ opportunities from three-point range (just 1-11 in the second half), as well as creating turnovers through an aggressive full-court press look.
“I think we had a focus coming in on trying to guard the line, and we didn’t do that as well in the first half; they were 6-for-15,” Hurley explained. “I think we did a better job (in the second half) of taking away the three and contesting threes.”
However, the most notable of the Sun Devil defensive marks was the team’s ability to create turnovers, a category in which they led the Pac-12 last season, through the usage of the highly aggressive full-court press.
“Really, the story was our ability to turn them over 20 times; it's something that we were able to do last year,” Hurley remembered. “I think it's going to be a strength of our defense, and we have to commit to guarding with that intensity and pressing and putting pressure on our opponents.”
With just under eight minutes left in the contest, Cal had closed an eight-point ASU lead to just one, but when Hurley needed it most, the Sun Devils got the offense rolling. Martin and senior forward Kimani Lawrence began the late-game charge with several layups, blowing by their defenders for relatively uncontested looks at the rack. Yet Cal stayed close with scores of their own - that is until senior transfer Holland Woods showed up.
With just over five minutes remaining on the clock, Woods dribbled the ball at the right wing, just outside the arc. Going between his legs to his left, Woods sized up his defender and cut quickly to the right, breaking the Cal player’s ankles before taking the three-point jumper.
Swish.
ASU’s lead went back up to six. Fast forward two-and-a-half minutes, and Woods received the ball again - this time an extra pass from junior forward Taeshon Cherry. With no defender in sight, Woods fired and sank the bucket once again, putting ASU back up to a six-point lead and slashing any hopes of a Cal comeback.
“Holland made some clutch shots down the stretch,” Hurley remarked. “I think just a number of our guys have been in a lot of big games over the last couple of years, and we do have some new guys that we're adding to the mix, but certainly our players that have been in these types of games know how to operate and function late in games.
Despite the unwavering intensity from ASU, many issues still remain to be addressed. Cal outrebounded Arizona State in a fairly close mark on the defensive glass, but the Sun Devils’ most profound weakness thus far in 2020 was once again exposed on Thursday night, as the Golden Bears beat out the Sun Devils 11 to 3 on the offensive glass. Paired with the offensive boards' discrepancy was ASU’s deficit in second-chance points as Cal scored 13 to ASU’s zero.
Although Woods nailed some clutch buckets from beyond the arc, the three-point bug wasn’t very contagious on Thursday, as Bagley, a key contributor beyond the arc, couldn’t seem to make his shots stick, going 1-for-7 on the night from outside. As a team, the Sun Devils shot a measly 27 percent from three, a mark which won’t lead them to victories over better opponents.
Nevertheless, there’s no such thing as a bad road win, and with ASU in the conference play win column, the Sun Devils move on to a home matchup with San Diego State on Dec. 10.
“Our defense was really good even though our offense was not quite up to that level,” Hurley declared. “You’re on the road, and in general, you have to be able to defend if your offense is not playing at its best, and fortunately for us, we were able to rely on our defense a little more tonight, when our offense was not at its best.”
Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, to discuss this article and other ASU football and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today here and get all the latest Sun Devil news!
