The reigning national champions and no. 6 Baylor (5-0) suffocated ASU and forced 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes en route to a 75-63 victory of Arizona State (2-3).

ASU jumped to an impressive 15-9 lead thanks to 9 consecutive points by DJ Horne with just over five minutes gone by. But four consecutive turnovers allowed Baylor to grab a 23-20 lead. The Sun Devils tied the game at 23 apiece with 8:28 left following a Jay Heath three-pointer, but from then out, they were outscored 22-8 the rest of the half. The first half ended with ASU failing to convert a field goal in the last 3:59 minutes as Baylor had a commanding 45-31 lead at the half.

ASU head coach Bobby Hurley was pleased with the fast start by his team, a trait not always present in their game this season, but naturally lamented the turnovers by his squad and the 12 fastbreak points by the Bears that eventually had his team relinquished the lead for the last 30 minutes of the game.

“As the half wore on again, their ability to get in the passing lanes and getting those live ball turnovers put them in a position to have that advantage,” Hurley said, “and it’s hard to really climb back into the game against a team of that caliber when you’re down that type of margin going into it. We had a couple of mistakes in transition defense that they’ll make you pay too. You can’t afford those types of mistakes against a team that is at this level.”

Horne led all players with 20 points shooting 7-10 from the field and 6-9 from beyond the arc. Nonetheless, he admitted that the Baylor defense he faced was hardly allowing him and his teammates to get into an offensive rhythm.

“I’m definitely going to give a lot of credit to that team,” Horne stated. “They’re a good team, defending national champions. Being out there playing against somebody who was really aggressive, I felt like it took us a minute to get adjusted to the pace of the game. They were out there playing more aggressively than us, and it took us a minute to get going.”

ASU point guard Marreon Jackson came near a triple-double despite not scoring a field goal. He paced the Sun Devils with 11 rebounds and ten assists, and all five of his points came via a perfect 5-5 performance from the line. Freshman center Enoch Boakye was highest on the team with a +5 in the (+/-) category and was 3-4 from the field, scoring six points to go along with his five rebounds.

The second half saw ASU settle down defensively, and after yielding a 47.4 clip from the field in the first half, they limited Baylor to 36.4 percent in the second stanza and defended the arc better as the Bears converted just 2-10 from that range. They also committed just four turnovers but still struggled offensively themselves shooting just 34.5% from the floor but outscoring their opponent 32-30.

“We were able to win the second half by two points,” Hurley commented. “The moral victories, I’m not really into that. But I was impressed that we just persevered through the game against a really good team. We had a few errors, a couple of breakdowns, but yeah, I mean, giving up 75 against them with as much firepower they have, I thought we did a pretty good job. We just couldn’t overcome the turnovers and the points that we gave away. You can’t give away points against a team that is this good. I thought we did a little bit better job of seeing the whole floor in the second half, driving and kicking. You have to get by someone, draw some help, and find an open teammate. And I think we just overall found guys better and just didn’t have tunnel vision and put our head down; I think we were just a little more efficient, moving the basketball and finding them the open teammate.

“Obviously happy to see DJ hitting shots because I think we have the potential to be a good shooting team. We just have not really done that yet, but DJ certainly did tonight. Enoch, I thought, had good minutes for us. He really stepped up, and in this type of game, he hasn’t played this well all season, and he did it tonight against a really good basketball team. So that was encouraging on the frontcourt. Jay Heath, he made a couple of shots late and trying to get him going. And so hopefully, he could build on that, you know, for our games tomorrow.”

Next up for ASU in this tournament is a matchup with Syracuse, who lost their opening game 67-55 to VCU. The Sun Devils tip-off at 5:30 pm AZ time tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, on ESPN2. Both teams last met in a 2018 an NCAA first-round game where ASU lost 60-56.