During the postgame press conference in the bowels of Desert Financial Arena, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley sat back with both arms over the neighboring chairs beside him. Hurley’s face was red with rage and his eyes held an exasperated stare.
Hurley’s Sun Devils surrendered a 15-point second-half lead and lost to UCLA (8-10, 3-4) by a score of 68-66 on Wednesday. ASU (10-7, 4-2) never trailed in the first half and looked to be in complete control midway through the second.
Then the game slipped away from the Sun Devils’ grasp in the final 10 minutes, where ASU was hit with four technical fouls. After five lead changes the Bruins came out on top, with some help from the officials from Hurley’s perspective.
“I just haven’t really coached many teams that have a track record or history of getting a lot of technical files or anything like this,” Hurley said. “So this breaks all the statistical anomalies, that there were that many technical fouls issued on my players tonight.”
Hurley was careful not to explicitly criticize the officiating and get himself in trouble, but he implied his displeasure nonetheless in his opening remarks to the media.
“I wish I could say how I really feel right now,” Hurley said. “But I’m not going to do that, I am not going to say how I really feel.”
The technical fouls shifted the game in UCLA’s favor. It started when sophomore center Shawn Phillips Jr. received a double technical foul in an altercation with Bruins sophomore center Adem Bona with 10:10 remaining.
UCLA was given four unimpeded shots from the free-throw line, and junior guard Lazar Stefanovic made all of them. The Bruins retained possession and sophomore guard Will McClendon nailed a three.
The Bruins scored seven points in two seconds to take their first lead of the night.
ASU players hung their heads low and looked dejected when the team huddled after the next break in play. The Sun Devils opened the second half in front 36-23, which grew to a 15-point margin when junior guard Frankie Collins drilled a 3-pointer in the first minute.
“I think some guys were kind of frustrated with themselves with what they did,” Collins said. “So I just think that they were owning up to what they did. Just trying to get through it. We just gotta stick together and just work around it.”
Bona responded with a pair of dunks that kicked off UCLA’s 28-10 run that put the Bruins ahead. Bona finished with nine points, seven blocks and six rebounds before fouling out with 2:42 left.
ASU regained the lead three more times and junior guard Jamiya Neal put the Sun Devils ahead by four with 4:09 to go.
Neal and junior forward Bryant Selebangue were assessed technical fouls with 3:50 and 2:30 left in the game.
“In a heated game, I’m sure there’s a lot of communication,” Hurley said. “And we’re the bad guys. Say, ‘hello,’ to the bad guys. You may never see a bad guy like us again. But that’s what we were tonight. We were the bad guys. So I’m sure no one else said anything except us all night.”
Stefanovic made three of four free throws following the technicals and freshman guard Sebastian Mack completed the three-point play after getting fouled on his successful layup.
Stefanovic had a team-high 18 points and five rebounds and was 3 for 7 from behind the arc.
Collins knocked down a 3-pointer 30 seconds later to give the Sun Devils their last lead with 2:04 remaining. Collins finished with 16 points and was 4 for 9 shooting from behind the arc.
UCLA trailed 64-63 until Mack scored the next four points off the fast break to put the Bruins ahead by three with 51 seconds left. Mack finished with 11 points.
But the Sun Devils gave UCLA a scare in the final 30 seconds. UCLA was on the verge of running out the clock with possession up 66-63. Neal made a steal at midcourt and pushed the ball to junior guard Adam Miller, who was fouled.
Miller made both free throws to make it a one-point game with 13 seconds left. Miller finished with 16 points and shot 6 for 13 from the field.
The Bruins held on and gave ASU their first home loss of the season. The Sun Devils had one of their best offensive performances of the season, but it wasn’t enough.
“I felt like we were the better team,” Hurley said. “We played better. We played better basketball.”
The Sun Devils outshot UCLA from behind the arc (50% to 33%) and scored more points off turnovers (16 to 8).
The Sun Devils remain tied for second place in the Pac-12 with Stanford (9-7, 4-2) and Arizona (13-4, 4-2). ASU hosts USC (8-10, 2-5) on Saturday at noon MST at Desert Financial Arena.
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