Much like a serpent that holds a grip on its prey until it effectively gives up, Stanford’s zone defense had the Sun Devils fighting until the scoring stopped and the defense folded late in the game. Stanford’s late 17-2 run over the last seven minutes was the true slow, painful death in the Sun Devils’ 71-62 loss. ASU fell to 11-10 (5-5 Pac 12) tonight, marking their fifth loss in their last six games since starting conference play 4-0.
Ahead of tonight’s matchup, a primary key to beating Stanford is overcoming their zone defense, something ASU proved capable of in their come-from-behind 76-73 win in Palo Alto in late December. Through the first half, ASU had hit six three-pointers and shot 42.9% from the field to hold a lead at the break.
Succeeding the first half was what Bobby Hurley called “hitting a wall” as the Stanford defense forced an 8.5% drop in ASU’s field-goal percentage, and the three-point total plummeted a staggering 16.2%.
“Credit to them, they closed the game out,” Hurley said. “Their defense bothered us, their zone, with their size, there weren’t a lot of seams. We did not move very well. We were pretty stagnant. We didn’t create any advantages against their defense late in the game.”
“Did anything change?” was the question being asked as there was a visual catastrophic difference on the floor. ASU’s call to success was Jose Perez inside the three-point line, finding the soft spot of the zone where he would finish with 14 points on the night, but once that was taken away, there was no counter move by the hosts.
“We wanted to get the ball in the high post,” Hurley said. “I think that was our only thing that was successful. Getting the ball to Jose, working against the middle of the defense, but you can’t rely strictly on that.”
Guard Jamiya Neal shared a similar scope on the halftime adjustment for Stanford.
“They moved back a little bit so we wouldn’t pass it to the high post,” Neal explained. “We were just a little too stagnant on offense, not moving and not getting enough player movement once we got it to the high post. They kind of went to a man, man-ish zone, and it was giving us a little problems. Ultimately, we got to get stops and get out in transition and also just knock down open shots.”
Stagnant was a common theme but a perfect description of the ASU offense. ASU tied their season high in three-point attempts with 32. The other game marking 32 attempts was, ironically, the game at Stanford, where they made two more threes than tonight. Alas, Arizona State didn’t find a greater measure of success on their home floor.
“I don’t think we were getting great shots,” Neal commented. “I think we were getting decent shots. I think we were getting makeable shots. I think they just weren’t falling. And Stanford, they’re a tall team. They’re a big team. So you know, sometimes they can take away certain stuff by just being there just putting their arms up. So it was a little bit of both.”
“You got to move, you got to change sides of the floor,” Hurley explained. “You got to get guys moving in different areas that you’re trying to change. We failed in that area. Playing that defense, you have to be able to make shots to stretch the defense to open up driving lanes or to get them out of the defense because you’re shooting them out of it. We weren’t able to do any of it.”
Stanford’s length was difficult to contain in December for ASU as the Sun Devils were outrebounded 42-35. The Cardinal’s size was once again a challenge as it outrebounded ASU again, 45-33, hindering ASU’s ability to work out into transition for easy scores. The Stanford size had the Sun Devils scrambling for answers for long stretches of the game.
“In transition, we want to attack the paint,” Hurley remarked. “When you have these big guys to go 6 ‘1” against 6’ 6”, 6 ‘7”, 6’9”, 6 ’10”, what do you think happens? There’s nowhere to go.”
Aside from the lackluster long-range shooting and absence of transition or paint play, the Sun Devils could have done better in a lot of different categories.
“But it’s everything,” Hurley noted. “Second chance points, we got buried in that category. We didn’t make our free throws the way we needed to. There was not a lot of margin for error down the stretch in that game.”
ASU gained eight offensive rebounds but only had seven points to show for it. From a free throw shooting standpoint, ASU was 61.5% from the line, which is just below their season average of 65.3%.
This matchup was decided by single digits, and all of the categories had to go the right way if ASU wanted to win. Both teams scored eight threes and were within two made field goals of each other (25-23). Missing open shots and free throws in an offensive collapse was the final breath for ASU.
The offensive struggle was the depiction of the serpent finally having its way with its prey. Some may call it karma, but ultimately, the dreadful performance on that end of the court and insufficiency in adjustments had the Sun Devils shaking their head at the end of this loss.
“I guess it came back around to bite us this time, and they made a late surge,” Neal stated. “We couldn’t make any shots, we couldn’t get any stops, and it killed us. That’s what kind of happened down there (at Stanford), so I guess it’s just karma in a way.”
Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, run by the longest-tenured Sun Devil sports beat writer, to discuss this article and other ASU football, basketball, and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today and get your daily fix of Sun Devil news!
