Just as the Sun Devils had done all night long, they moved the ball. Passes flowed, the ball never stuck, and as junior guard, Tra Holder got the ball near the top of the arc with space to either drive or shoot, he made the extra pass out to the left side to teammate Shannon Evans II.
Evans calmly caught the pass and fired off a quick shot, catching just a bit of the back of the rim as it went through for a program record-tying 18th 3-pointer of the game.
The Arizona State (5-3) offense reignited early Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena, keeping the runs going in a record-tying 97-73 win over the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (5-3).
Even as UNLV’s length made dribble penetration difficult early for the Sun Devils, they managed to take an early lead with what was given to them – outside shooting. ASU made six of its first seven 3-pointers, going 13-for-22 in the first half alone to take and extend their lead.
They wound up hitting 18 of their 36 attempts from behind the arc to match the school record, which had previously been set on Nov. 20, 2009, against San Francisco. Much of the hot shooting came from the three guys who have carried much of the scoring this season – Holder, Evans and senior guard Torian Graham. Each finished with more than 20 points, with Evans leading all scorers with 28 points and Graham going 6-for-11 on 3-pointers.
“Tonight, everybody just had it going so it didn’t matter who shot it,” Graham said. “We were just trying to pass the ball around and drive and kick to find the open person.”
For head coach Bobby Hurley, Saturday’s shooting performance was just gratification for many of his preseason comments highlighting the potential for an outside game.
“I knew we could potentially have these types of shooting games, just with the four guards out there and guys who are capable of knocking down shots. We made the extra pass tonight, which was nice – 18 assists is a really nice number – so we moved the ball well and took what the defense gave us.”
As the Rebels looked to take away the long ball in the second half, Holder and Evans took the ball inside. They found gaps in the defense and went to the foul line early and often, finishing with 20 attempts after just five in the first half. They were efficient in doing so, turning the ball over just four times in the second half.
The Sun Devils’ impressive shooting performance overshadowed a defense that found itself after allowing back-to-back 100-point performances to The Citadel and No. 1 Kentucky. Following a 115-69 loss to Kentucky in the Bahamas on Monday night, it became clear that things needed to change.
The Sun Devils pressured the ball all night, even as nearly the entire lineup found themselves either in or approaching foul trouble by the end of the night. It proved effective, confusing UNLV into seven traveling violations in the first half alone and 12 turnovers overall, which led to 19 ASU points.
“I feel like we just picked up the ball and guarded the ball heavy,” Evans said. “I think everyone had great defense, and that leads to everyone getting open shots and the chance to score. It was a lot of fun. I feel like the big key today was picking up the ball and pressuring as much as we could.”
Even if the offense hadn’t come together, however, this week of practice encouraged Hurley of the defensive effort that was to come.
“You wonder about the psyche of the team, the confidence of a team after a loss like that,” he said. “But we practiced real hard. The guys got a lot of pride… I thought we might struggle some early in the game on offense. I felt that the guys would outperform and outwork them defensively. It was nice to see we were hitting shots in addition to the defense we played in the first half.
“I thought we had great energy on defense. Our guards picked up the ball sooner than they have in previous games and started applying pressure, which helped get us organized with setting our defense. We wanted to be the aggressor and start developing an identity. If we’re going to play some smaller lineups, we got to be more of a pressure team.”
The foul trouble did force the Sun Devils to become even more adaptive with their lineups. Normally a four-guard team that struggles with size, ASU even had to roll out a five-guard lineup as bigs Obinna Oleka and Jethro Tshisumpa sat.
“It was a lot of fouls at that point,” Hurley said. “We don’t really have an offense for five guards, I don’t think we’ve played five guards this year at all, so it became more of just a drive and a kick and space the court…When you’re in foul situations, you’ve got to juggle it a bit.”
Oleka finished with eight points and seven boards in just 22 minutes, while Tshisumpa fouled out with two points and a pair of blocks in seven minutes in some of his most effective time of the season. Each will be critical moving forward, particularly in ASU’s next tilt, Tuesday against No. 15 Purdue at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic.
