Trojans hand Sun Devils first double-digit loss since conference opener

Even though ASU started February with seven consecutive wins, the down-to-the-wire nature of several of those victories gave the sense that they were due to be humbled.

That’s exactly what happened this weekend, as the Southern California Trojans stomped ASU 71-61 to complete a weekend sweep of the desert schools. Luckily, UCLA's win over Arizona tonight gives the Sun Devils a good chance to finish as one of the top fourth teams in the conference.

For the Sun Devils (19-10, 10-6 Pac-12), it was their first time getting swept in a Pac-12 road series since being defeated by both Oregon schools February 22 and 24, almost exactly two full years ago. This was also their first double-digit loss since losing the conference opener to UA by 28 points in Tucson.

“I thought we overdribbled into some bad areas in the first half,” coach Bobby Hurley said. “Our turnovers led to some transition points for USC.”

While ASU certainly pulled neck-and-neck during stretches of the final 10 minutes of action, it truly felt like an uphill battle for the entirety of the game. They led 2-0 before the Trojans (21-9, 10-7) went on a 14-0 run during the rest of the first five minutes of play, and the Sun Devils never so much as tied the game after that point.

Heck, you could argue the remaining 35 minutes of action was just one prolonged back-and-forth, as the final scoring margin was only two points smaller than when USC had that early 14-2 advantage.

“We didn’t have a lot of juice or a lot of pop early in the game,” Hurley said. “That was slightly disappointing. Once we did start ramping it up with our pressure, I thought our guys were entrenched in the game from that point on.”

The funny thing about this is the Sun Devils actually shot more efficiently tonight, with a 32.8 percent effort from the field, than they did in beating the Trojans in Tempe three weeks prior behind a 31.3 percent showing.

On this final day of February, the difference was ASU taking nine fewer field goals than that victorious effort, despite only taking three more free throws tonight compared to then.

This was in large part due to much fewer offensive rebounds, as the Sun Devils grabbed six tonight compared to 17 in Tempe. Although USC only had one more with seven, they dominated the second-chance points by a 14-2 margin, an effort led by double-doubles from senior forward Nick Rakocevic (13 points, 11 rebounds—4 offensive) and senior guard Daniel Utomi (19 points, 10 rebounds—all defensive).

Here are some other aspects to consider from the Sun Devils' second consecutive loss.

Quality of shots and lack of ball movement concerning for Sun Devils

This is a tricky one, because not only did ASU get away with a few horrid shooting efforts during its seven-game win streak, and greater stretch of nine wins in 10 games prior to this weekend, but one can argue what is truly a bad shot for this team.

Senior guard Rob Edwards (10 points, 3-for-8 field goals, all threes, 1-for-2 free throws, four steals, four rebounds) shot a few transition threes, junior guard Remy Martin (team-high 22 points, 8-for-18 field goals, 2-for-8 threes, 4-for-6 free throws, four assists, four turnovers) takes some spot-up threes and jumpers early in the shot clock, and junior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. (six points, 3-for-11 field goals, 0-for-4 threes) certainly loves those baseline fadeaways.

Tonight, it seemed like that line was crossed in the trio collectively taking too many of those types of shots. The Sun Devils showed flashes of good ball movement leading to buckets, but those were belittled by not just bad looks, but also some ugly shots on respectable or good looks with space to set and shoot.

“That’s what we lacked today,” Edwards said, “just getting it side-to-side, getting it down low, everybody getting a touch and then getting the best shot out of every possession.”

Not only did ASU shoot an abysmal 7-for-29 (24 percent) from three, but half of their shots from the field came from behind the arc in a 19-for-58 shooting night overall. Edwards believes the team could’ve countered this by making more of an effort to feed junior forward Romello White down low (nine points on 3-for-8 field goals, 3-for-5 free throws, plus nine rebounds).

“I don’t think we really looked down low for Romello,” Edwards said. “He was upset, and I tried to get it to him. But I don’t think we really moved the ball well today. I don’t think we did a good job of getting the ball into him so he could get going.”

Press defense proves effective, but not enough to slow down Trojans shooters

For what it’s worth in this tough of a loss, the Sun Devils did a solid job deploying the full-court press after going down big early, as Hurley mentioned earlier. The 14 turnovers ASU forced in the first half played a big part in only trailing the Trojans by six at the break.

Even though the Sun Devils only forced five in the second half, they seemed to come at opportune times and help play a role in the attempted comeback, as they got within one with over seven minutes to play.

However, the press often left USC’s big men open down low once they could escape ASU’s trap defense, leading to Rakocevic’s aforementioned big night and a double-figure scoring effort from freshman forward Onyeka Okongwu (10 points on 3-for-6 field goals, 4-for-5 free throws, plus four rebounds)

Hurley admitted the Trojans size down low put the team in some uncomfortable situations defensively, not unlike Thursday night’s loss at UCLA.

“We had to do things that we didn’t really want to do,” Hurley said, “like double team Okongwu like every time he caught it, and we wanted to try and protect ‘Mello to make sure he didn’t get in foul trouble. So, we were doing some things that we don’t always do as a team defensively, so we were put in some unique situations.”

Worst of all, senior guard Jonah Matthews had his third 20-point performance of the season, the second of which have come against the Sun Devils. His 23 points (7-for-12 field goals, 3-for-7 threes, 6-for-8 free throws, added five rebounds, two assists, two steals) broke his previous season-high that he set against, you guessed it, the Sun Devils three weeks ago.

There’s no doubt ASU could’ve not only done a better job in getting back on press defense to cut down on USC’s open looks, but just contested a higher number of looks in the half-court defense, as they allowed the Trojans to shoot 9-for-20 (45 percent) from three. When comparing this to ASU’s shooting clip from deep, this arguably made the biggest difference in the game.

Should a change of roles be considered for Verge?

It was a brutal weekend for ASU’s second-leading scorer, as Verge followed up his lowest scoring effort in the month of February, a 12-point effort at UCLA, by scoring half that at USC. As the leading scorer off the bench in all of college basketball, he’s certainly gotten comfortable in his role of taking the first few minutes of a game to evaluate the opponent, then go in and do his thing.

This is something that’s come from Verge’s mouth, not mine or anyone else’s, and switching his role to a reserve is what sparked his emergence in the first place. But now that the team’s winning run has come to a screeching halt, and his lack of scoring has played a huge role in it, the “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” argument completely vanishes.

“If he’s open and he’s got space I trust him to shoot it,” Hurley said. “His body of work, especially the last 10 games, speaks for itself. So, he’s entitled to maybe not being at his best offensively. But yeah, he’s got great handle and he can create, so you certainly want him to utilize that.”

Obviously, Hurley’s enthusiasm for what he brings to the table hasn’t wavered, which is no surprise based on how he’s talked about him even when he wasn’t doing so hot in the first few months of the season.

The reason I think this specific game raises the question of considering him starting is not just because they took a bad loss, or because it was their second loss in a row, but because Verge—again, the team’s second-leading scorer and a top-14 scorer in the conference coming into today—didn’t even see the floor until ASU was trailing by double digits.

It’s hard to imagine that played a role in his lowest-scoring performance since going scoreless at Oregon on January 11, but it’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t have been an upgrade over junior forward Kimani Lawrence (two points from free throws, two missed threes, one rebound, one turnover) in those early minutes that proved to be so crucial.

Hurley may have to entertain the thought if he trusts Verge enough to officially make him a starter—again, based on his body of work like Hurley said himself—to maybe help avoid another costly slow start. Or is it at a point in the season where the whole team’s body of work has shown that sticking to the current formula gives the Sun Devils their best chance at success going forward.

ASU returns to action Thursday night when they host the Washington Huskies (13-16, 3-13) at 7 p.m. The game will air nationally on either ESPN or ESPN2.