Arizona State went on a 7-0 run late in the second half with four minutes remaining to bring the deficit to within three points in an 89-86 game against in-state rival No. 24 Arizona. All of a sudden, the Sun Devils were rolling with a chance to stun the crowd at McKale Center.
With a short rotation and foul trouble restricting ASU (13-17, 4-15 Big 12) and how aggressive head coach Bobby Hurley could be, the Sun Devils couldn’t keep pace with the Wildcats (20-10, 14-5) and ran out of gas in a 113-100 defeat. Although ASU’s offense was firing on all cylinders to stay level with the Wildcats, their size down low proved to be too much.
“I’m really proud of my guys and how we battled,” Hurley said. “I think we had our chances, but the bottom line is that we were short-manned. It became difficult to manage the rest of the game once we got into foul trouble.”
Senior forward Basheer Jihad and junior center Shawn Phillips both had four fouls with a few minutes left in the game and fouled out on back-to-back possessions, forcing Hurley to throw out five guards on the court against a big and physical Arizona team that picked them apart in the dying minutes to pull away.
With Jihad and Phillips in foul trouble, the Wildcats dominated ASU inside, scoring 52 points in the paint and scoring 25 second-chance points. They also outrebounded the Sun Devils 38-28, allowing them to get out in transition and tire out ASU. Freshman forward Jayden Quaintance has been out with a leg injury for three games, and the Sun Devils have missed his rim protection tremendously.
The Sun Devils scored the second-most points in a game this season, but neither team could miss in the second half. Arizona shot 62% from the field in the second half and 59% throughout the entire game compared to ASU’s 48% in the final 20 minutes. Senior guard Alston Mason finished with a season-high 33 points, the most by a Sun Devil since Alonzo Verge in 2019.
“He was outstanding,” Hurley mentioned. “He was just as good as any guard I brought in here to play a game versus Arizona on the road. It was an unbelievable individual performance.”
Mason started the season as mainly a facilitator for the Sun Devils, but the injury to redshirt senior guard Adam Miller and senior guard BJ Freeman’s dismissal from the team forced Mason to pick up the scoring slack, averaging 17 points in the last three games.
Mason became the main focus for Arizona on defense, allowing freshman guard Joson Sanon to quietly score 14 second-half points. Ending the game with 18 points, Sanon hit several shots with a defender right in his face, as his confidence has begun to come back with 46 points in the last two games.
Other freshman guards, Amier Ali and Trevor Best assisted Mason and Sanon. Ali hit three threes in the first half but had a quiet second half, scoring 13 points. While Best only scored 6 points, he was all over the court defensively, trying to generate stops and turnovers. With not a lot of roster turnover next year, the trio of freshmen coming into their own is a good sign for the future.
“This was a great learning experience for Trevor,” Hurley added. “He played very well in the second half against BYU, but playing on your home floor and doing it in this environment are two very different things. He got lost on defense off the ball a couple of times, but he’ll improve and continue to get better. He’s got some good days ahead of him.”
With Miller starting the game and heading to the locker after the first possession, reaggravating his hip injury, Hurley’s short rotation became even shorter. Outside of senior guard Bobby Hurley Jr. playing in six minutes, Hurley Sr. had a six-man rotation that didn’t give up an inch of room all 40 minutes.
Though the result isn’t what Hurley wants, the resiliency and fight his squad displayed shows much more about the team than the final score. Even with ASU down double digits with only a minute left, Mason was still on the floor fighting for a loose ball. The Sun Devils never gave up, a mentality that they’ll look to continue in the coming weeks with the Big 12 Tournament right around the corner.
“You can’t give up or give in,” Hurley emphasized. “I would say a majority of the teams we’ve played have felt our presence in the game. Those guys were pretty scrapp,y and in a battle, we just have to keep doing that.”
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