The Arizona State Sun Devils lost to the BYU Cougars 77-49 at Michelob Ultra Arena on Thanksgiving night in their first game at the Vegas Showdown.
The Sun Devils are now 0-2 in neutral-site games this year. The first was a 71-56 loss to Mississippi State at the Barstool Sports Invitational in Chicago.
Arizona State established a 7-3 lead in the first two minutes. Junior guard/forward Jamiya Neal scored the Sun Devils’ first four points and junior guard Frankie Collins knocked down a three-pointer.
BYU responded with a 7-0 run before the first media timeout at 14:47 left in the first half.
Arizona State entered a remarkable scoring drought after Collins’ bucket, failing to score for almost nine minutes. Freshman guard Braelon Green made the score 12-9 with 9:13 left to go in the first half.
The Cougars also suffered a scoring drought after senior forward Noah Waterman made the score 12-7 with 13:35 left in the first half. Their next bucket came from senior guard Spencer Johnson, who sunk a three-pointer with 7:37 left.
This energized the BYU offense, which started to strengthen its advantage. The Cougars held a 24-15 lead with 1:59 left before the break. Then, they went on an 8-2 run to lead 32-17 at halftime.
Junior forward Bryant Selebangue gave two points to the Sun Devils out of the break. The Cougars responded with two triples from Waterman and junior guard Trevin Knell. This caused Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley to burn his first timeout 90 seconds into the half.
Graduate guard Jose Perez made the Sun Devils’ first free throw of the night with 17:37 left in the game.
Over the next five minutes, Hurley’s side attempted to decrease the lead, but could not cut it. The Cougars still held a 19-point lead with 13:49 left.
The Cougars’ lead would stay in the 20s after junior forward Atiki Ally Atiki’s layup made it 53-33 with 11:51 left in the game. The Sun Devils trailed 67-41 at the final media timeout with 3:53 left.
Hurley brought on some bench players after the timeout. This included freshman forward Akil Watson, who netted six of Arizona State’s last eight points.
Watson and Ally Atiki were ejected for fighting with around 33 seconds to go in the game. Perez and Waterman were also tossed.
BYU outclassed Arizona State in every shooting category. While the Cougars shot 40.9% from the field, the Sun Devils shot 33.3%. BYU went 16/31 in the second half while Arizona State went 11/29.
The guys from Provo also dominated from behind the arc. They went 14/33 while the guys from Tempe went 2/20. BYU now has the most three-point attempts in the nation after last night’s performance.
While the Sun Devils went 9/12 from the free-throw line in the second half, they still wrapped up the day going 50%. The Cougars went 9/12 during the entire 40 minutes.
The Cougars out-rebounded the Sun Devils 51-32 and out-assisted them 18-7. Neither team blocked a shot during the game.
Arizona State held BYU’s top scorers, senior guard Jaxson Robinson and Knell, to single digits. However, senior forward Noah Waterman put up a career-high 24 points.
Neal led the way for the Sun Devils with 13 points. Collins had 11 points and led the team with 7 rebounds.
The Sun Devils (2-2) will wrap up their time at the Vegas Showdown on Friday at 6 p.m. when they take on Vanderbilt (3-3) in the consolation game.
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