For the first time since December 19, Arizona State men’s basketball returned to Desert Financial Arena to take on the Colorado Buffaloes, hoping to ring in the new year with some success despite obstacles such as COVID-19 altering the team’s schedule.
Even with substantial efforts to keep the contest close, ASU (5-9, 1-3 Pac-12) was undone by poor shooting and a second-half defensive breakdown, permitting Colorado (12-4, 4-2) to escape to a double-digit lead, one which they would not relinquish as the Sun Devils fell 75-57 on Saturday night.
“I would say it was not a totally unexpected performance considering everything that’s been going on (over the past several weeks),” ASU head coach Bobby Hurley said afterward. “I thought the guys were juiced about playing though because it’s been so long, but we ran out of gas in the second half.”
A tale of two halves in Tempe, the Sun Devils fell behind early, trailing by a 15-3 deficit in the opening minutes. Sophomore Colorado forward Jabari Walker opened the game with three straight buckets, while senior forward Evan Battey headed up the second part of the initial charge with three makes of his own.
Nevertheless, the Sun Devils fought back and out of the early foxhole with a varying cast of characters. Five Sun Devils scored in the first 10 minutes to cut the lead to just one point. Yet, for the lead they had just come back from, the Sun Devils let the Buffaloes chip away to another double-digit lead. In five minutes, a series of three-pointers and transition buckets put Colorado up 10.
Once again, Hurley and Co. dug into the Colorado lead, spearheaded by the efforts of sophomore guard Jay Heath and junior forward Jalen Graham.
“The bright spots on the night were when we started slow, and they got up on us 15-3, we responded and made a charge,” Hurley said. “They had us again at 29-19, and the guys still made some plays. We pressed, we got energy out of that and kept it at a one possession game. That was good work by us.”
ASU trailed by three at halftime, with the other positive note on the night, Graham, leading the team with 11 points. The junior would go on to score 16 points, a career-high mark while adding five rebounds, an assist, and a block to the stat sheet. Heath scored 15 points.
Graham had spent the week ahead of the contest cooped up with a non-COVID illness, so much so that he was questionable for the Colorado matchup this weekend. Hurley gave some insight to local reporters on Graham’s condition after the contest.
“He was sick for days; we were talking with him, I did a Zoom call with him when I got back to the office, and he did a lot of testing, but everything came back okay,” Hurley said of his player. “He felt well enough to practice yesterday, and he looked pretty good at practice. During our Zoom, it was pre-practice, so I didn’t know if he was going to go at that point. It looked like we could bring him in and get him some minutes, but I was trying not to give him too many. I think we did in the second half because he wasn’t nearly as good as he was in the first.”
Graham only logged five points in the second half, but he wasn’t the only player to show fatigue or play poorly in the final 20 minutes.
The ASU defense had kept the Sun Devils in the game across the first half, allowing the team to surge back from the double-digit deficits Colorado was running out to. In the second half, that effort began to crumble in the early minutes but completely melted down as the half progressed. The Buffaloes opted to spread the floor and hit their shots, something the Sun Devils couldn’t respond to.
“I just didn’t think we had that urgency we needed defensively to get stops,” Hurley responded. “It’s like they had 10 points right away in the first four minutes (of the second half), and there couldn’t be that much more fatigue that happened from the last minute of the first half to the first four minutes of the second. I think we were worn down a little bit as they had their success. We didn’t handle adversity well and figure out a way to lock down and get back in the game.”
The Buffs made six three-pointers in the second half, as well as let the Colorado guards spread the defense out and drive to the cup. The immense size of the Buffaloes also helped CU scythe the Sun Devils on the boards, winning out the rebound battle 46-31.
“We talked about rebounding, and we knew they were coming in plus-eight per game on the backboard versus opponents, so we know they could rebound, and they have good size at three spots,” Hurley explained. “The second half was a total meltdown (on defense).”
Hurley might have expected a tough contest in the Buffaloes coming to Tempe, particularly after a long time away from the court, but the Sun Devil head coach reflected on what’s made his team successful after the game and how necessary that aspect of their identity is to bring the squad back to greener pastures. ASU gets its first chance at that on Monday at home against Utah.
“The games we have had the most success in with his group have been when we are really intense on defense and connected as a group. We have done that in our best wins and held our opponent down and given ourselves a chance to win late in games,” Hurley recalled. “This has been a team that has struggled to score. I haven’t had a team that’s had this much difficulty scoring the ball, so we just have to play better.”
“(We did) a lot of things that you can’t afford to do if you’re not an explosive offensive team.”
