An impressive start brought back memories of Arizona State’s miracle victory at the McKale Center a year ago, but it turned out to be nothing more than a mirage.
The Sun Devils were thoroughly dominated by No. 5 Arizona after the first 12 minutes of the game and the Wildcats went on to a 105-60 victory in front of a raucous home crowd.
“We did not watch one clip from that film,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said about 2023’s dramatic game in Tucson. “If you need extra motivation like that, you’re probably not competitive enough.”
Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley seemed accepting of his team’s fate this year.
“This group of players is doing the best we can,” he said. “We were overwhelmed today. We were outgunned today.”
It did not look like that was the case at the beginning, but things can change quickly on a basketball court.
ASU looked like it had some rhythm offensively early. Graduate student guard Jose Perez paced the offense with his deliberate, back-to-basket style of play, but Arizona was able to generate a defense against it throughout the half and game.
Perez finished with 14 points and was able to draw several fouls, but it was nowhere near enough to keep his team in the game.
The Wildcats matched ASU’s start and as the eternally streaky Sun Devil offense began to fade, they took advantage.
Arizona finished the first half on an 8-0 run and led by 18.
“My biggest criticism of us was how we finished the half,” Hurley said. “Particularly, that last minute, it was embarrassing that we gave up layups and multiple opportunities to stretch that lead.”
The Sun Devils’ commitment to midrange offense was not sustainable. In the first 25 minutes of the game, ASU made just 15 field goals compared to Arizona’s 25 makes.
Redshirt senior center Oumar Ballo was a matchup nightmare for Arizona State’s thin depth in the frontcourt. After opening the game with a clever leak-out dunk, the veteran big nearly tallied a double-double in the first half with nine points and nine rebounds.
He finished 15 points without missing a field goal attempt and totaled 11 rebounds.
“(Ballo) was very physical … we weren’t able to support the paint at all,” Hurley said.
Ballo’s paint dominance also forced sophomore center Shawn Phillips Jr. to the bench early after he picked up two fouls. ASU’s tried to counter with junior forward Bryant Selebangue but the undersized big stood little chance against Ballo and his teammates.
The Wildcats attacked the unprotected paint with reckless abandon and scored 30 points in the paint in just the first half. They ultimately finished with 52 paint points, while the Sun Devils tallied just 16.
Six Wildcats finished the game in double figures scoring-wise, with sophomore guard Jaden Bradley leading the way with 21 points.
“I’m really proud of Jaden,” Lloyd said. “To see his buy-in on that is huge and I think that’s going to be really encouraging for the development of his own career and it’s going to be great for our program.”
Senior guard Caleb Love broke ASU’s spirit with a personal 5-0 run to put Arizona up 20 early in the second half. His deep 3-point make from the right wing was followed by an emphatic “Forks Down” gesture, which caused a roar from the McKale crowd.
“I can’t blame any one coach for a defensive scheme or any one player for just poor effort, it was unified across the board,” Hurley said. “Just really a difficult team to slow down.”
Arizona was named as one of the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Selection Committee’s initial reveal of the sidelines today. It was always going to be an enormous task for the Sun Devils to replicate their effort from last season, which even then, felt impossible.
The last time Arizona State gave up more than 90 points was against San Francisco on the road in December 2022.
Hurley said the team would never watch the film from that loss to the Dons. Saturday’s blowout felt in many ways like it would be the same way.
The Sun Devils have no choice but to regroup with five Pac-12 contests remaining. At 13-13 overall and 7-8 in a weak year for the conference, NCAA tournament hopes are all but lost.
But the Washington schools come to Tempe for next week’s slate and ASU has a chance to right the ship once again.
Whether the Sun Devils ship has sunk after Saturday’s loss or not will likely be revealed on Thursday against Washington.
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