One year after a miracle half-court shot spoiled Arizona’s (22-6, 13-4 Pac-12) senior night at McKale Center, Arizona State (14-15, 8-10) bore the brunt of their rivals this time around, who were keen on returning the favor. While it was a far more competitive contest on Wednesday than the drubbing that ASU took in their return to Tucson 10 days ago, they were still no match for their rivals at Desert Financial Arena. With plenty of navy and red in the visiting stands, the fast and furious Wildcats outgunned the Devils en route to an 85-67 defeat for the maroon and gold.
Despite opening the game on a poor shooting streak and going down by as much as 18 points in the first half, Arizona State rode their defense back into the game in the second, drawing within four points in front of a raucous crowd. Unfortunately for Bobby Hurley, his team could only hold up for so long against a better equipped and overall more talented roster in ASU’s fourth straight home loss in the Territorial Cup.
“Arizona played a really good basketball game,” Hurley noted. “After watching them all year, playing against them now twice, I would say in my nine years here, this was the best Arizona team that I’ve faced. Really good team; they deserve the credit for outplaying us in this game.”
Such praise from a seasoned college basketball mind like Hurley’s is no doubt warranted. Entering Wednesday’s conest ranked as the No. 6 team in the nation, the WIldcats proved why from the jump. In akin to their up-tempo style of play, the Wildcats stormed out to double-digit lead within five minutes, running up and down the floor while the Sun Devils couldn’t get a shot to fall.
This theme would continue to recur throughout the front 20, as even Hurley’s use of three timeouts couldn’t slow down the ferocious attack of Tommy Lloyd’s group. In a near exact approach of their 45-point victory in the previous meeting, Arizona attacked the paint early and often with their plethora of athletic and tough talents. Oumar Ballo was once again a handful in the post, as neither Alonzo Gaffney, Shawn Phillips, or Bryant Sleebangue could even force a miss out of the senior center all game, who would go 6-6 from the floor for 14 points.
When they couldn’t find Ballo, the elite perimeter pairing of Caleb Love and Kylan Boswell were able to get downhill for eight and nine first-half points of their own, respectively, with a seven-point boost from KJ Lewis off the bench. Shooting nearly 55 percent from the field in the front 20, in comparison to ASU’s putrid 29 percent, Arizona taking a 41-27 lead into the half felt almost underwhelming by their standards. Hurley realized this and preached it to his players that while the contest looked one-sided at half, they were still within striking distance.
“I felt like being down 14 was sneaky good for us,” Hurley said. “Knowing we had possession of the ball, settled for a lot of jump shots early in the first half and couldn’t really get anything done around the basket. When I used a timeout when it was 28-12, we played basically even the rest of the way.”
“It was definitely a gut check,” Adam Miller added. “Coach kind of started it. We come into halftime, and he said he felt like we were going to come out on a run.”
Whether it was Hurley’s hunch or an improved shooting effort, that run did come. Almost instantly, the Sun Devils changed the energy in DFA with an 8-0 run to kick off the half, cutting Arizona’s lead down to six.
“It got us going a little bit,” Miller said of the crowd. “I love to play in those type of enrvionemnts. It makes you play that much harder. It’s an Arizona versus Arizona State game. Doesn’t get better than that.”
From there, the rivals would go punch-for-punch, with Arizona answering nearly every ASU question. Cutting the lead as low as five in the second half, ASU was able to keep up with the high-scoring Wildcats but could never gain the upper hand due in part to the slow start.
“That first half forced us to chase,” Hurley emphasized. “Just never could put enough game pressure on them or get it to where we had a lead. We got close, but we couldn’t get over the hump. It’s reflective of all the things we were incapable of doing.”
Where ASU came up short would be down low, as UA won the rebounding battle 43-30 while amassing 44 points in the paint to ASU’s 20. Still, ASU trailed by just five with seven minutes to play, but their modicum of shortcomings would catch up with them.
While a 13-point half from Jose Perez and some big makes from Adam Miller kept them alive, Frankie Collins (1-9 FG) and and Alonzo Gaffney (2-6, 1-5 3PT) couldn’t make their shots to keep up. Losing the rebounding battle so drastically, the absence of shot-making, combined with a superior Arizona squad, would force the Sun Devils into submission down the stretch.
With ASU running on fumes, UA would wind up closing the game on a 24-11 run via elite shot-making from Love, the continued dominance of Ballo, and timely scores from Boswell, Pelle Larsson, and Keshad Johnson to seal the season sweep, and a loss for ASU in their final home game as members of the Pac-12 Conference.
No doubt a home loss to your arch-rival stings, but the notion of senior night only added to the emotion of defeat for Hurley, now sending off his ninth group of seniors after this year.
“The emotion today, for me personally, is not the easiest to navigate,” Hurley commented. “Regards to all the seniors particularly. When you add that into the mix of playing a team like Arizona, what it means to our fanbase, it’s the ultimate level of disappointment. Certainly, I have to give credit where it’s due. They are a very loaded team that has a chance to do a lot of damage the rest of the year.”
For all that Arizona outmatched his players in on Wednesday, though, Hurley still had plenty of praise for his team, especially for outgoing upperclassmen Jose Perez and Alonzo Gaffney. While Perez is a newcomer to the program this year, and Gaffney has been around for multiple seasons, whom have both meant the world to ASU.
“Jose, one year, short time, but a warrior,” he said. “Gave us everything he’s got every time he’s out on the floor. Gaffney has been good to me. Part of an NCAA Tournament team. Nice kid, great kid. Wouldn’t trade him for anybody. Type of kid that I want in the program.”
“Each year is a new team, but every team I’ve been on, I’ve always respected my leaders,” Miller continued. “This is their last go-around. Always try to make sure I go the extra mile because it’s not always about yourself. They got dreams and aspirations as much as I do. We tried to play our heart out for them tonight.”
And, of course, Hurley’s son, Bobby, who made his first start as a Sun Devil on Wednesday, meant a little more.
“Bobby goes without saying. What he means to me, forget about winning basketball games, making shots, winning championships, breaking the assist record. He’s a far better human being than I am. That’s all that I can hope for.”
For all of the subplots that went into Wednesday night, ASu could take solace in an 18-point loss rather than the historic 45-point beatdown they took at McKale Center less than two weeks ago.
“The quality of the performance we put out last time, I did not feel like it was even our average,” Miller recalled. “It was a bad day all around. They kind of came out the same way they did last game, but we actually wanted to win more today than we did that day.”
And even in tonight’s loss, Hurley came away with a familiar notion of this Sun Devil team, no matter their record: they never gave up.
“I thought they had opportunities to back out of this game, and they didn’t,” Hurley said of his players. “We’re not having a fantastic season, but there are teams that are freaking brutal. They’ve given up, and they don’t compete. That’s not what your team is doing…We didn’t play anywhere near an A-plus game, which was totally necessary. Our players have competed through a lot of adversity this year, and we haven’t quit.”
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