Smooth play from guards, defensive aggressiveness key in ASU's win
The Arizona State Sun Devils (2-1) worked through a slow start to rout the Rider Broncs (2-1) 92-55 Sunday evening in Tempe.
With the victory, ASU completes the weekend sweep of the lower-end mid-major schools from the northeast, which will allow the team to start next weekend’s invitational games in Connecticut with some momentum.
“Outside of the start-- how we came out-- that aside, I think there’s a lot to be happy about with how we played,” coach Bobby Hurley said. “(Rider) is a legitimate opponent…so, it was good, especially since I still haven’t felt like we’re in a flow or in a really good place offensively yet.”
Today, it was junior guard Remy Martin and freshman guard Jaelen House leading the way. Hurley has compared the two several times, an interesting note given how similar their stats were today.
Both players finished with 20 points, Martin adding three rebounds, three assists, and four steals, while House grabbed five rebounds and added two assists plus two steals. They each finished with one blocked shot, and also each committed only one turnover.
“It’s great having guys like Jaelen House that just pick you up if you’re down,” Martin commented. “He brings that energy, he’s just a good teammate; you want him on your side because on the ball, he’s going to create havoc, and speed up the defense.”
Martin scored his 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field, including 3-for-6 on threes, and 1-of-2 free-throw shooting. House was 7-for-12 from the field, but had the same totals on threes and made all three of his free throws.
“We need to work on our free throws, I don’t really miss free throws, though,” House said semi-jokingly.
As a team, the Sun Devils improved in some key areas compared to last Thursday’s 41-point victory over Central Connecticut. ASU committed seven turnovers, an improvement from the 11 last time out, and increased its offensive rebounds to 15, up from last game’s total of 12.
“I thought overall, we stood up pretty well considering we were small at times again,” Hurley said. “They missed a lot of shots, and when they shoot those percentages it’s inevitable that you might be in an even battle on the backboard…I didn’t have a huge issue with our rebounding.
“I did like our turnovers, that’s been something that I’ve been surprised that we’ve turned it over more than I think we should have the last two games, so to have it at seven was right where I hope it would be, or close.”
Most notably, the Sun Devils set a new single-game record in the Bobby Hurley era-- dating back to the 2015-16 season—with 29 turnovers forced in this contest, a result of the tenacious press defense mainly by House, Martin and freshman guard Alonzo Verge. It was the highest single-game total ASU has forced out of an opponent since 2003.
“Our defense, obviously steals and turnovers, that’s what got us going this game,” House stated.
The aggressive, full-court pressure ASU applied defensively seemingly came as a result of the team’s slow start. In the early going, the Sun Devils trailed the Broncs by margins of 10-2, then 12-4 at the 13:48 mark in the first half.
Although sophomore guard Elias Valtonen hit a response three-pointer 15 seconds later, the next minute was scoreless, back-and-forth basketball, just as it was in the first 1:55 of the contest.
But then, with 12:24 left in the first half, a steal by Verge off an inbounds pass and the corresponding layup seemed to ignite a spark under the previously sluggish Sun Devils. Verge’s layup started a 12-2 ASU run, giving them a 19-14 advantage by the 8:58 mark, and from there the Sun Devils played a full-court press for much of the remainder of the game.
“That’s ultimately what we want to do,” Martin said. “We want to get out in fast breaks, we’re a fast-transition team, so when we create turnovers, we get it going and we’re pretty hard to stop when we get in transition.”
Rider hung around for a few more minutes, but a timeout by Hurley at 6:06 in the first half, with ASU ahead 27-22, proved to be another turning point in the contest. Coming out of that break, the Sun Devils would go on a 14-0 run, and finish the half outscoring the Broncs 16-2.
A continued defensive aggressiveness played a large factor in this strong finish to the half, as ASU notched four steals and a blocked shot, all from different players, over that six-minute scoring run to close the opening frame, leading 43-24.
At that point, Martin and House were already in double figures, with 11 and 10 points, respectively, while Rider’s leading scorer, junior Demencio Vaughn, has eight. He also led both teams with six turnovers committed at that point, then went the second half without any giveaways, but also didn’t score anymore.
“I’m really happy with our bench and how they performed, especially when we were behind 12-2,” Hurley said. “And then 18-0, I think it was, bench points (margin) in the first half.”
House was the main leader of that effort, and the Sun Devil bench also got contributions from sophomores in forward Taeshon Cherry (six points, three rebounds, three assists, one steal) and guard Elias Valtonen (six points, three rebounds, two steals, one assist).
Much like Thursday night’s game, ASU continued to impose its will in the second half, going on to outscore the Broncs 49-31 in the final 20 minutes.
After Rider got the first points of the second half on a layup to get within 17 points of ASU, they would never get any closer, as Martin scored the Sun Devils first five points of the frame, plus got two steals and an assist, all in the first five minutes back on the floor.
“I think that not too many programs do (the full-court press),” Martin said. “I think that when we play other programs, I think it’s going to be a different look for them, and I think it’s going to throw them off a little bit more.
“It’s not like we’re just running around going crazy, we have principles, we have things that we need to do, and that comes within practice, and we go out there and we execute.”
House continued adding onto his point total too, sometimes from fast-break layups, sometimes from hitting jumpers, but two other players really stepped up in the second half as well.
Verge scored seven of his 11 points in the second half, finishing the game with six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Junior forward Romello White also finished with a solid performance in his first start of the season, scoring 11 points (five in the second half) and tallying seven rebounds, two blocked shots and an assist.
“I thought we competed well on the backboards against a team that was outrebounding their opponent by almost 20 a game,” Hurley said. “Romello and (freshman forward) Jalen (Graham) are pretty good on that backline on defense, just challenging shots late if we get beat.”
Graham finished with four points, four rebounds and two blocked shots in 15 minutes of action, for anyone who was curious.
The Sun Devils will return to action when they play the St. John’s Red Storm this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in a neutral site contest in Uncasville, Connecticut. This game will be a rematch of ASU’s victory in the First Four matchup at the NCAA tournament last March.
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