Arizona State won a buy game against UMass Lowell and came close to a loss and to, as some say, the epitome of brutality.

Despite trailing for over 36 minutes of game time, Arizona State (2-1), even with ten newcomers, engineered another second-half Sun Devil comeback, as ASU rose out of its grave for a miraculous 71-69 win over the River Hawks (3-1).

For a while, it didn’t look like head coach Bobby Hurley would be able to pull out his 41st second-half rally since being at the helm of the Sun Devils. Having shot just 27 percent from the field and 2-12 from deep in the first half, the hosts offered an uninspiring front 20 that culminated in a nine-point deficit, as demoralizing plays and a bounty of missed opportunities had them walking back to the locker room emotionless.

“We felt that the last two games we had, we haven’t been shooting the ball well,” forward Alonzo Gaffney said of the first-half flameout. “So a lot of guys were really thinking about the offense too much.”

“There was a lot of blank expressions in the first half,” Hurley noted. “We didn’t have anybody playing well, so everyone was kind of glassy. We were not ready to play in the first half. We just tried to really infuse life into our players in huddles, typing to convince them that we’re still in this; we got a chance.”

In order to have a chance, you need to have time to take it. And even though ASU had two minutes to work, the 67-57 scoreline didn’t offer much hope. Even though the Sun Devils had played far better offensively in the second stanza, it looked as if they simply had dug themselves too big of a hole to climb out of. In a time of desperation, Hurley pulled out his calling card of defensive intensity, enacting a full-court press that threw UMass-Lowell into a tailspin.

“That team, as many games as they’ve won over the last year-plus, you get some game pressure on; one turnover could snowball,” Hurley said. “When we went to it, we really had no choice because of how inefficient we were in all phases really. We felt like we needed a spark, and it paid off.”

“We have a really good press,” Gaffney added. “Our defense is still really good. When we come out with that type of desperation, we’re gonna generate stops.”

In the final 1:59 of regulation, Arizona State would force a whopping five turnovers, and as Hurley alluded to, it all started with one. Down this stretch, Lowell would give up the ball on four consecutive possessions, which turned into points on every occasion for ASU, to turn a 10-point deficit into a tie game in 53 seconds of game time.

After a defensive stagnate for much of the final minute, another loose ball came out, and Alonzo Gaffney dove on it, getting possession back to the Sun Devils with 36 seconds to play.

“Gaffney was the play of the game,” Hurley pointed out. “The way he laid out on the loose ball was something we needed from the first 20 minutes of the game that we didn’t see almost any examples of.”

In another flip of the script from the first half, the Sun Devils would get it done down low offensively. Isolated at the top of the key, guard and West Virginia transfer Jose Perez, the newest member of the team, would get the ball and drive inside before floating a shot through the net to give ASU its first lead since the game’s opening score.

UMass Lowell would not go down so easily, though, as a foul on a layup gave two free throws to Yuri Covington. Having impacted the game heavily with 14 points and seven rebounds, Covington calmly knocked down his two free throws to knot the score at 69. Having lost the lead and looking disorganized offensively all night, many in the arena expected Hurley to burn his final timeout and set up a play. But even with all the struggles with his team Thursday, Hurley played to his opponent’s disadvantage in the game’s final seconds.

“I like those scenarios,” Hurley exclaimed. “You don’t give your opponent a chance to get set; get their defense set. We got Frankie downhill. We wanted to set a ball screen near the halfcourt. We wanted to attack the basket. Bryant set a ball screen, turned him (Collins) loose.”

Having secured two of those steals in ASU’s game-tying 13-2, Hurley trusted his veteran point guard to make the winning play. With the help of a Bryant Selebangue screen, Collins exploded up the court and put home a shifty scoop layup to put the Sun Devils ahead with two ticks on the clock.

“Frankie showed why he’s a winning point guard to close the game out,” Hurley highlighted.

When Selebnague tipped the River Hawks’s inbounding pass at the baseline, Desert Financial Arena erupted in cheers, while ASU themselves breathed a gigantic sigh of relief.

“I told them in the huddle this was a save-our-season type of game,” Jose Perez said. “We came out with the win, and that’s all that mattered.”

Season-saving wins don’t usually come in November, and while UMass-Lowell isn’t a total brushover of the November non-conference slate, the River Hawks unexpectedly handled ASU throughout the entirety of the game. In the first half alone, the Sun Devils managed a measly 22 points, as their starting five combined to shoot just 6-24 from the floor. Plenty of these misses came from close distance as well, with LSU transfer center Shawn Phillips, in particular, missing multiple opportunities in close. Out of the halftime break, Hurley felt a change in personnel in the frontcourt was needed to ignite the sleeping Sun Devils.

“I just thought we needed to change something,” Hurley noted. “I didn’t like at halftime that it was 22-12 in the paint. Not blaming Shawn totally, but at that point, you say, ‘Okay, we’re not winning the paint, let’s get Kamari in there.’”

Inserting Lousiville forward transfer Kamari Lands would turn out to be pivotal. Playing all 20 minutes of the second half, the transfer forward from Louisville would give ten critical points, six from beyond the arc and four from the free throw line. His scoring from those two areas was a sight for sore eyes for Hurley after ASU shot 2-12 from three and 4-8 from the free throw line in the first half. In the second, that turned into 5-11 from deep and 8-13 at the stripe, a key component of the comeback but also an indicator of the desperation the team had.

The comeback fashion of the win, including its late-game dramatics, was no stranger to Hurley and ASU fans. Having won multiple games in such scenarios a year ago, Hurley saw much of the 2023 team that won an NCAA Tournament game in his group tonight. That squad, also filled with new faces, meshed early en route to an 11-1 start. While last year’s rendition figured it out quickly, this team knows it’s got plenty of work to do to keep pace, especially with a likely-ranked matchup against BYU on deck next week as the schedule begins to fill with stronger opponents.

“It’s a new group,” Gaffney said. “We’ve had new groups for almost the last three years. We’ve been trying to get that chemistry together. It’s early on. We’re not gonna be the same team at the end of the year.”

“I’m not saying every team is the same, but the way we started this season, in a way to me, mirrors how we started last season,” Hurley recalled. “It’s very highly coincidental. We’re still searching; we need to find it. I didn’t know if we were gonna find it the way we did. In Brooklyn last year, we found it quick. That’s the mission now for us over the next week.”

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