In front of a packed Desert Financial Arena, Arizona State’s frantic defense shined in the Sun Devils’ 82-67 win over the visiting USC Trojans.
“I was just really excited to have our players have the opportunity to play in that environment,” ASU coach Bobby Hurley said. “The crowd helped so much especially when we were trying to impose our will defensively.”
Imposing their will was an understatement in describing the effort, particularly in the first half.
The Sun Devils forced 22 turnovers in the game. 15 came in the first half.
Down freshman guard Isaiah Collier and fifth-year guard Boogie Ellis, the Trojans were vulnerable in the decision-making department. Hurley knew that.
“You have to try to take advantage of that… the guys really understood that,” he said.
The Sun Devils identified the weakness against pressure for USC by digging into the Trojans’ Jan. 13 loss at Colorado.
“Colorado pressured them and flipped the game around,” graduate student guard Jose Perez said.
The Trojans led Colorado by 13 points. The Buffaloes pressured USC heavily in the second half and won the half by 23 and the game by 10.
The blueprint was there.
USC junior guard Kobe Johnson, who inherited a lot of the ball-handling duties, committed five turnovers on his own Saturday afternoon.
ASU’s most impressive stretch was the close of the first half when the Sun Devils completed an 8-0 run and took a seven-point lead when the buzzer sounded. They forced two turnovers in the last minute.
Redshirt junior guard Adam Miller capped things off with a tough reverse layup and caused DFA to erupt.
The catalyst of ASU’s full-court pressure was junior guard Frankie Collins. The veteran point guard made every USC guard he faced work their way down the floor with intense pressure.
Freshman guard Bronny James Jr. fell victim a handful of times to Collins’s incredible defensive work rate.
Collins finished with six steals, all of them coming in the first half. His 17 points and seven assists felt like rewards for the guard’s relentless effort on the other end.
His teammate Perez had a very simple, but accurate one-word answer when asked how he would describe Collins as a defender.
“Pest,” he said.
Perez also thrived as a result of the tremendous defensive effort, scoring 20 points with a handful of tough transition baskets coming off of the turnovers.
The Sun Devils scored 24 points off turnovers.
“We don’t really want to run half-court offense if we don’t have to,” junior guard Jamiya Neal said. “Defense is offense for us, that’s what we preach.”
Neal has developed into an elite transition player, often bursting by defenders with his speed and flying over them with his athleticism but it all starts on the other end.
The longest-tenured Sun Devil flashed his high-flying capability with a late dunk to put the Sun Devils up 20. He finished with 17 points.
“We’re all athletic, we all can make plays in the open court as you can see,” he said. “We all look good when we do that… a lot of guys can’t keep up with us in transition.”
The defensive effort allowed Hurley’s unit to play the way it wanted to.
The 11-7 Sun Devils head to Oregon next week to play both the Ducks and Beavers. With a pair of efforts on the defensive end like Saturday’s, the Sun Devils could be poised to be in control of the Pac-12 standings when they come home.
“Going for first place, winning the league, last year of the league, that’s what we’re going for,” Perez said.
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