College Basketball saw its fair amount of upsets during opening weekend, something Arizona State men’s basketball head coach Bobby Hurley said will become the “norm” given the sport’s parity. His team’s swift and strong second-half response helped it avoid being another victim of one of those upsets.

ASU trailed Cal Poly 51-50 with 15:28 remaining in the second half, but it eventually settled down with another showing of strong backcourt play and defeated the Mustangs 96-74 at Wells Fargo Arena on Sunday night.

The Sun Devils (2-0) used a 22-9 second-half run to take a 10-point lead before effectively closing out the game. After shooting 40 percent in the first half, ASU finished strong by shooting 60 percent in the second half.

”Very pleased with where we are right now after the first weekend,” Hurley said. “A lot of new faces, new parts and guys working together…For us to have to respond late in the first half and early in the second half is good thing for us.’

In Friday night’s opener, junior guards Tra Holder and Shannon Evans, and senior guard Torian Graham combined for 65 points. The trio combined for 62 in Sunday night’s win as Holder and Graham scored 24 and 18, respectively, on 7-of-12 clips, and Evans dropped 20 on 4-for-10 shooting.

A large part of Evans and Holder’s scoring output came from free throws. Evans made 12 of them and Holder added seven of his own. In total, ASU made 33 free throws compared to Cal Poly’s 12.

Hurley said the NCAA rule changes, which strictly enforce hand-checking the ball-handler, benefit players like Evans and Holder, who have used their quickness and athleticism to have success taking defenders off the dribble in the first two games.

“It’s natural that if teams switch a five man on a point guard then they’re not going to be able to usually guard that player without putting their hands on them,” he said. “Having guys that can break down the defense off the dribble puts yourself in a great position to get yourself to the free throw line.”

Added Evans: “We actually really like the new rule, the freedom of movement. We were just trying to stay aggressive. I couldn’t get my shot going for real, so I knew getting to the line would get me going. I felt like we both tried to do that.”

Another contributor showed up on Sunday, though. Senior forward Obinna Oleka tallied a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds, increasing his point total and matching his output on the board from the opener.

However, highly-touted freshman guard Sam Cunliffe was once again quiet. After scoring just three points on 1-of-3 shooting with four fouls in his college debut, Cunliffe scored just five points on a 2-of-6 clip against Cal Poly.

“It’s a freshman making an adjustment,” Hurley said. “He’s got such a high ceiling and as the year goes on, he’s going to do some great things here.”

After allowing Cal Poly to shoot 50 percent from the floor with seven three-pointers in the first half, ASU’s defense improved in the second half as the Mustangs shot just 35.7 percent. They hit five threes, but a couple came in garbage time after the game’s had effectively been decided.

Evans described the team’s defensive effort as “lackadaisical” at points in the first half.

“At halftime, we just talked about picking the ball up, pressuring and playing with energy,” he said.

Through the first two games, Hurley has started Holder, Evans, freshman Sam Cunliffe, junior Kodi Justice and Oleka — four guards and a forward.

Hurley said he has never used a lineup that small as the 6-foot-7 Oleka is its tallest player. However, he has needed to go small as his frontcourt depth was thinned when freshman forward Vitaliy Shibel tore his ACL before the season and fellow freshman forward Romello White was ruled an academic redshirt.

The aforementioned circumstances naturally put added pressure on freshman forwards Jethro Tshisumpa and Ramon Vila.

Tshisumpa, who did a reverse somersault after a play during the team’s opener, dunked on one play and executed something like a mini-cartwheel after another during his seven minutes. Vila scored four points in 14 minutes.

Small ball may be the recipe for now, but Hurley said a more conventional lineup will make an appearance as Tshisumpa and Vila develop.

“I want to get Obi reps at the four because he’s very good at the four, and I want to get Sam (Cunliffe) reps on the perimeter,” he said. “It’s very nice when you have guys on the perimeter that are as good as they are because I got to get those guys on the floor. It’s great that we’re having the success that we’re having because I don’t think we’re coming close yet to what our potential will be as guys continue to play better that I think will play better. “

ASU now travels to Orlando, Fla., where it will face Northern Iowa on Nov. 17 in its first game of the Tire Pros Invitational at 2:30 p.m. MT.