The comeback, drought, and finish: Inside ASU’s dramatic and wild USC win

Like so much of what transpired Saturday night, it was the perfect confluence of events. Impeccable timing that created a genuine, memorable moment.

With three smartphones outstretched in front of his face, ASU guard Rob Edwards stopped, allowing his mom, LaShonda Sims, and a few others to trek down the hallway, without him, so he could provide some clarity to a wild game that reversed course more times than a quarterback scrambling for his life.

Asked what was going through his head as Remy Martin’s off-balance, pull-up jumper hit the backboard and rolled around the rim … then circled the iron again … then one more time, Edwards paused.

He peaked over his right shoulder. The man who delivered the night’s heroics was walking back from his press conference at the ideal time. Though Edwards was asked about his thoughts, he figured Martin could take a guess. His whole team was probably processing the same feeling.

“It better go in,” Martin said, a tad confused as he waited for Edwards to confirm or deny.

“It better go in,” Edwards responded with a sly grin. “That’s a good one. That’s what the hell I was thinking. It better go in.”

It went in.

Martin’s miracle mid-range heave sunk through the net with 16 seconds to play. It ended an ASU shooting drought as parched as the Sahara. It completed the Sun Devils’ gritty second-half resurgence. And, it proved to be the game-winner.

Arizona State knocked off USC Saturday night, 68-64. The bizarre victory improved ASU’s record to 15-8 and 6-4 in the Pac-12, delivered the Sun Devils their first weekend sweep of the season and inched them closer to the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Here’s how it came to fruition.

The Comeback

Forward Khalid Thomas scoffed. When ranking Bobby’s Hurley’s halftime speeches, in terms of how furious ASU’s 48-year old coach got, the St. Mary’s game tops the list this season. It’ll be tough to beat -- a 40-point loss will lead to feverous agitation. Thomas admitted Hurley was incredibly livid at half of what became a 28-point loss to Arizona in Tucson. That was probably No. 2, he said.

But Saturday, that can take bronze.

“Intensity-wise, it was up there,” Thomas joked. “For us to play the way we did (in other words, poorly) in the first half and only be down eight, we weren’t really nervous at all. Then once coach got in there, he got into us a little bit.”

It seemed to work.

Though the Sun Devils still couldn’t buy a bucket in the second half, they began to exploit one of the Trojans most glaring weaknesses. It showed up on film. In-game prep. The Sun Devils knew USC didn’t respond well to pressure, yet it took 20 minutes before they brought a swarming full-court press.

The Trojans were rattled. Tired. Shaken. They struggled to advance the ball past midcourt. To throw the ball in bounds. To make a pass to someone in their own colors. In total, USC turned the ball over 24 times, the most by an ASU opponent in the Hurley era.

“There was one time where I looked up at the free-throw line and they were all breathing hard and I looked over at coach and was nodding my head like, ‘Yeah, I think we’ve got them. We tired them out.’” Edwards said.

“That was our game plan. Pressure them to make them speed up.”

Just over nine minutes into the second half, the Sun Devils had forced 11 USC turnovers. They clawed back. Snatched the lead. Controlled the momentum.

A few possessions after the Sun Devils took the advantage, guards Jaelen House and Alonzo Verge flocked up court with a vengeance. They trapped USC senior guard Quinton Adlesh before midcourt and swatted the ball to the ground as he tried to escape.

The trio dove on the floor. Six hands touched the ball in unison. The refs whistled for a jump ball. The crowd roared. House bounced up and began screaming as he motioned his arms to the 9,628 on hand.

“I was saying like, ‘He ain’t going nowhere,’” House said. “They’re very shaky. We were watching film … The only thing you can do on defense is just have so much intensity and just give your all. Empty your tank, like coach Hurley says. So that’s what we did.”

The Drought

About 30 seconds after Desert Financial Arena erupted and House popped up, hype about the jump ball call, Martin jumped Adlesh’s pass intended for USC guard Jonah Matthews (who finished with 22 points) and took it the other way for a two-handed slam.

It would be the Sun Devils’ final made field goal until Martin’s game-winner … more than 11 minutes later. In that span, ASU went 0-for-15 from the field. On the night, it shot a subpar 31 percent.

“Almost no one wins shooting 31 percent. That’s a testament to how hard we defended,” Hurley said. “We didn’t let our inefficiencies on offense filter over to our defense.”

Yes, ASU played great defense. But no matter how well you lock down, teams don’t often overcome 15 consecutive missed shots. Especially against squads with as many athletes as the Trojans boast.

But, this has been the Sun Devils calling card. No matter their deficit -- if a loss is guaranteed or not -- they keep fighting. Keep clawing back. At times, it hasn’t mattered. So what if that St. Mary’s defeat was by 45 instead of 40?

On Saturday, though, their grit paid off.

“We’ve known what we were capable of doing,” Verge said. “It’s the trials and tribulations. No one said it was going to be perfect. And now that we have a hold on this thing, we’re going to take off.”

The Finish

And that brings us to Martin’s masterful, and somewhat lucky, game-winner. Ok, maybe not lucky. Ask his teammates, Martin practices off-balance, sometimes one-footed, pull-ups as frequently as any other attempt.

“For him, that’s kind of his shot. Dribble, pull-up, mid-range,” Thomas said. “It’s kind of what he does.”

“When he gets to his spot on the mid-range shot, those are his best, in my opinion,” Hurley added. “He stops really fast and goes right into his shot.”

In ASU’s upset of No. 1 Kansas last year, Martin knocked down a similar jumper with his equilibrium anywhere but set. It just didn’t have quite the bravado or gusto or suspense as Thursday’s shot, however.

His game-winner clanked off the backboard and hung on the rim for three rotations. The replays will read about three seconds from the time the shot Martin’s hand to when it dropped. To those witnessing it in real time, it felt like an eon.

“I just pulled up to the elbow line which I was not hitting the whole game and you know it got the roll,” Martin said. “As it was rolling I was like ‘Please. All the hard work I’ve put in just at this moment, drop through the hole.’ And it did.”

Added Verge: “I knew he was going to make a play to win the game but when it started (rolling), I was sitting right there just looking.”

Said Thomas: “As soon as it left his hands, I’m like, ‘Please go in. Please go in.’ And it was just rolling around and I’m like, ‘Uh oh.’ It’s going to go one of two ways and it went in and I was going crazy.

“It hit the glass and rolled around a little bit, trying to play with our emotions.”

The shot, like Martin, possessed a flair for the dramatics. But it went in. For the game, for ASU and for the Sun Devils’ season, that was the pleasant bottom line.