With five nights before Christmas, the Arizona State Sun Devils played the Northwestern Wildcats in the 2023 Jerry Colangelo Hall of Fame Series.
They embraced the season of giving on Wednesday night. That is, giving their opponent a victory.
The Sun Devils fell 65-46, dropping three consecutive non-conference games in December for the first time under head coach Bobby Hurley.
“I didn’t do a good job getting the team ready for this game,” Hurley said. “We forced them to miss some shots early in the game. But we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. [It was] really frustrating on offense.”
Junior guard Jamiya Neal gave the Sun Devils a 2-0 lead one minute and 49 seconds into the game. Then, the Wildcats, who were ranked No. 25 in the nation last week, responded with an 18-5 run. This caused Hurley to burn his team’s first timeout.
After a triple from senior guard Brycen Long, Arizona State fans waited four minutes and seven seconds until the next basket from their team. Junior forward Bryant Selebangue ended the drought with 5:56 left before the buzzer. That cut Northwestern’s advantage to 15, as it led 27-12.
The Sun Devils did not make a field goal for the rest of the half. In fact, they shot 19% from the field and 20% from the free-throw line in the first 20 minutes. They headed into the locker room down 36-13.
“As teams are coming at us, we don’t have a response,” Hurley said. “We’re not making shots, we’re missing free throws…We got to look at it, evaluate it, and see what changes we need to make.”
Hurley’s side improved in the second half. They did not trail by more than 22 within the first 10 minutes of the period, forcing Northwestern turnovers.
Eventually, Arizona State cut the lead to 17 with 7:34 left in the game. This caused Northwestern head coach Chris Collins to burn his first timeout. But the lead wavered around that margin until its conclusion, as the Sun Devils finished non-conference play with a loss.
The Sun Devils’ offense was held to 46 points, which is their lowest total this season. Additionally, they shot 31.4% from the field, 16.7% from behind the arc, and 61.1% from the line. While the Wildcats shot 44.4% from the line, they bested Hurley’s side in the other two categories.
Three Wildcats finished in double digits. Graduate guard Boo Buie had his third-consecutive performance in double digits, registering 22 points. Buie reached 500 in his career.
Junior guard Brooks Barnhizer registered 16 points. He also logged the most minutes amongst his Wildcats, starring on the court before he received a curtain call alongside his teammates with 28 seconds to go.
After snapping his nine-game double-digit point streak against TCU, junior guard Frankie Collins registered 10 points and was the only Sun Devil to reach double-digits. He scored eight of his ten in the second half.
However, Collins said that his team is “mentally soft” and urges for changes within the group.
“We got to play hard, and that’s the only way our offense is going to translate,” Collins said. “We want to make shots and want to play in transition. If we can’t get stops, we can’t get that.”
Arizona State’s bench players starred late in the game. Two forwards, freshman Akil Watson and junior Bryant Selebangue scored seven points. Watson’s seven came in the second half, including the last four points for the Sun Devils. Five of Selebangue’s seven came in the final 20 minutes.
Neal, a starter, also had seven points, with five coming in the first half.
After dropping 20 points in his Sun Devil debut against TCU, redshirt junior guard Adam Miller only dropped six on Wednesday night. This included one point in the first half on a converted free throw with 39 seconds remaining.
The Sun Devils (6-5) will end 2023 with a trip to the Bay Area to start Pac-12 play. They face the Stanford Cardinal on December 29 at 9 p.m. and face the California Golden Bears (9-2) on New Year’s Eve at 6 p.m.
Despite disappointing non-conference results, Hurley says that he and his staff will look to hold a high standard for the program as in-conference play commences.
“We work very hard to be an NCAA Tournament program, we did that last year,” Hurley said. “We’re going to fight for the program and do what we have to do to change and see who wants to move forward with us and be about the right things and who doesn’t. We’ll find out a lot over the next couple of weeks.”
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