An embarrassing effort put Arizona State in a 21-point halftime hole against Washington (15-12, 7-9). With nowhere else to go, Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley pulled his starters from the game in favor of his second unit.
“Just furious with the group that started,” Hurley said. “There was no unity to that group. We had no backbone. For those few minutes once the game got away from us, we just allowed it to happen. And I had no choice.”
The reserves played with the fire and desire that the regulars didn’t have, igniting ASU’s largest comeback of the season that fell just short in their 84-82 overtime loss to the Huskies.
Although the narrow defeat stung, the mood in Desert Financial Arena was a night-and-day difference from the somber atmosphere less than an hour earlier.
“When we went to the second unit, they came out and they were scrappy,” Hurley said. “And we started getting stops. And then the crowd appreciated that they were noticeably playing harder than the group that was in there before.”
After Washington’s halftime lead ballooned to 25 points early in the second half, Thursday’s game seemed destined to be the low point in ASU’s season.
The Sun Devils had lost to in-state rival Arizona by 45 points in their previous game, and now faced another insurmountable deficit to the 10th-place team in the Pac-12 Conference going into the night.
ASU coach Bobby Hurley was as frustrated as he had ever been this season.
“We were just too casual out there,” Hurley said. “Lackadaisical. There was no urgency for 23 minutes and it cost us.”
Replacing junior guards Frankie Collins, Adam Miller and Jamiya Neal, forward Alonzo Gaffney, and center Shawn Phillips Jr. with guards Kamari Lands, Braelon Green, Bobby Hurley, Jose Perez, and forward Bryant Selebangue was the only way he could get his players to replicate his passion.
The second unit rewarded Hurley’s decision.
“And then once I went to the bench and got the second unit in there, everything kind of changed the rest of the way,” the coach said.
ASU went on a 14-2 run over the next four-and-a-half minutes to get within 13 points.
Selebangue scored the first three points on a layup and free throw. Perez chipped in with a layup off the fastbreak. Lands had his most significant contribution of the season, scoring three 3-pointers in less than three minutes.
“Our second unit, they came in and did what they’re supposed to do,” Collins said. “They gave us a spark. They got stops, and we couldn’t stops.They got some buckets where we couldn’t get buckets. So shout out to them for coming in, being ready and playing harder.”
The momentum shifted and ASU’s starters trickled back onto the court with a new sense of purpose. Shortly after Phillips Jr. was inserted back into the game, he dove for a loose ball to successfully preserve ASU’s offensive possession.
While the bench was the catalyst of ASU’s furious comeback, Collins put the team on his back at both ends of the court. He led the Sun Devils with three steals, eight rebounds and 21 points, 19 of which came in the second half.
“I think the world of Frankie [Collins],” Hurley said. “He’s in a very select company with me in regards to how I view him.”
Collins converted a difficult layup with defenders all over him to cut the deficit to 10 points with 8:55 left. Two minutes later, Collins made his first 3-pointer of the game to get the Sun Devils within seven points.
Collins hit another three from the corner to make it a 2-point game with just over a minute remaining. After the game, he credited the team’s bench for helping him find his game in the second half.
“I’ll shout out to Braelon [Green],” Collins said. “He came in and played hard, got stops, made the right plays. So I fed off of him. And then that kind of got me going.”
He knocked down his third dagger from behind the arc to get the Sun Devils back to within two points with 34 seconds to go in the game.
The Huskies inbounded the ball, and Collins wrestled it away from graduate student forward Keion Brooks Jr. With the steal, Collins broke ASU’s single-season steal with 77 on the year, surpassing Lafayette Lever’s record from 1982 (76).
But there was no time to celebrate the milestone accomplishment. Collins was fouled by Brooks Jr. and headed to the line with the opportunity to tie the game with 28 seconds left.
Either the weight of carrying his team over the previous 10 minutes or the high-pressure moment caught up to him. Collins missed both free throws.
“I’m a believer that there’s no singular play that is going to determine why you win or lose the game,” Hurley said. “I think our game, we deserved to lose because of the first 23 minutes of the game. And then somehow we had a chance to win. But we didn’t, we didn’t make the shots we needed to make.”
On the next ASU possession, Collins was fouled from behind the 3-point line. Again, Collins missed a free throw but made two of his three attempts to make it a 74-73 game with 14 seconds remaining.
Huskies sophomore guard Koren Johnson missed one of his free throws, giving the Sun Devils the opportunity to tie the game with a basket or win it with a 3-pointer.
Collins received the inbounds pass, drove cross-court, and scored on a layup to tie the game 75-75 with seven seconds left.
That was the end of Collins’ heroics as he fouled out one minute into overtime. Without their emotional and scoring leader, the Sun Devils were unable to punctuate their 25-point comeback with a win.
But if moral victories exist in college basketball, the final 17 minutes of Thursday’s game was as close to one as it gets.
“I’ve never been as conflicted walking into this room because I feel like Jekyll and Hyde,” Hurley said. “There’s a side of me that is furious. And then there’s another side that has great admiration for what I saw. So, I’m really torn right now about how to feel.”
After playing one of their worst halves of basketball of the season, ASU’s season-high 51-point second period was among their best.
If the team can replicate the same late-game sense of urgency against first-place Washington State (21-6, 12-4) on Saturday, the Sun Devils (13-14, 7-9) have a chance of pulling off the upset.
“I think this is a good turning point for us,” Collins said. “I know we lost but it’s a good turning point for us to see how it looks when we play the right way. And if we continue to do that, it’ll help us win these last four games.”
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